


Dreamy, Believe Me (I’ll Have your Heart on a Platter)

by Azkaabanter



Series: Everything is Temporary, so Hold On While You Can [1]
Category: Among Us (Video Game), Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Among Us AU, Blood and Gore, Death, Dream and George are adorably oblivious, Hurt/Comfort, Idiots in Love, I’m a sucker for some lovin, M/M, Murder Mystery, Mutual Pining, Near Death Experiences, Romance, Slow Burn, Vomiting, big brother wilbur, everyone has trust issues huh, eye gore, of course, sassy sapnap, seriously this is very gory, there is a murderer afoot, this is your tw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:47:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 41,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26673157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azkaabanter/pseuds/Azkaabanter
Summary: Dream woke up on a cold table in an unfamiliar room- unexpected, but he’d roll with it. As long as George was by his side-which he was, thankfully- Dream knew that he would be okay.Even if he was hurtling through space with seven of his other friends.Dream, George, Sapnap, Bad, Wilbur, Skeppy, Tommy, and Tubbo were headed to an unknown place with an unknown job to do. But, something was wrong. One by one, their friends were being brutally murdered along the way. If they didn’t figure out who the imposter was soon, none of them would be able to return home.Ever.Now the tricky part was catching the killer.
Relationships: Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Hinted zak ahmed/Darryl Noveschosch
Series: Everything is Temporary, so Hold On While You Can [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1978264
Comments: 340
Kudos: 935





	1. The Experiment

The question wasn’t _how_ are they in space. The question was _why_ are they in space.

Dream shot up off of the hard metal table, heart pounding in his chest. His eyes whizzed around the room as he huffed breath after breath, trying to stave off panic. He wiggled all of his fingers and toes, and rolled his neck and shoulders. All limbs were accounted for. As the man’s heart rate began to slow, his anxiety started to build.

“What the _fuck.”_ He said quietly. He was in a cluttered room with metal walls and circuitry littering the floor. Huge, thick-glassed windows in the hallway separated the blonde from a vast starry sky which was laid out endlessly, and on the opposite end of the room in the corner was some sort of raised platform. There were several other tables near his own, some occupied, some not. The man was wearing a hefty green suit: he guessed it was a space suit based off of the heavy helmet resting on his shoulders. He felt weird. Something was, well, _wrong._

Dream sat up and stared at the other bodies in the room- one in a cyan suit, one in a black suit, and another in a white suit. They were unmoving other than a slight rise and fall in their chests, signifying their breathing. Last he remembered, Dream had been going to sleep in a village Inn with Sapnap, George, and Bad. Now… 

Well obviously he hadn’t woken up there. 

The green-clad hero got to his feet, stretching out scarily stiff limbs. ‘ _How long have I been out?’_ he thought to himself. Days? Weeks? His dog back on Earth must’ve been hungry, hopefully the inn owners had fed her. Dream frowned as he thought of Patches sitting in his room all alone. He realized quickly that he had bigger problems to deal with though as an alarm started blaring in the hallway, starling him. 

While the alarm blared and the red light reflected off the shiny metal floor of the medbay, Dream tried to take stock of his situation. He hoped with his whole heart that the people on those tables were his friends, because if not he was totally and completely fucked. They were his brains, his happiness, and they were the only ones who would put up with his shitty jokes. The last day that Dream remembered was their annual manhunt, but nothing had been any different than normal. Just Sapnap hitting him with rubber-tipped arrows, Bad calling him a muffin for cursing when he slipped on wet rocks in the river, and… George.

The blonde heard a low groan from one of the people on the tables, which pulled him immediately out of his reverie. Dream turned around to see the person in the white suit twitching slightly. He took a deep breath and moved slowly towards the others in the room- he didn’t know who they were, and if he had learned anything in his life of adventuring, it was to not trust anything when he didn’t have a sword handy.

“Hello?” He prompted. There was silence from the person in white for a moment, and then another low groan. Dream picked up the first thing he thought he could use as a weapon and continued to make his way forward. “Who are you?” he tried again, and this time received a response.

“Dream?” The blonde lowered his weapon and immediately smiled brightly at the raspy voice.

“Sapnap?” 

The person in the white suit swung his legs over the side, and met Dream’s eyes through their helmets. He looked scared- rightfully so. “Where the fuck are we?” Dream opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted with another friendly voice as he pocketed the scalpel he’d been brandishing.

“Language.” Bad said weakly, the black suited man moving to sit on the edge of the table just as Sapnap was. The relief flowed through Dream’s body like a river. As long as he was with his friends, he knew that everything would be okay. It had to be.

“Bad, this is really not the time for that.” Sapnap grumbled, looking around to take in their situation just as Dream had. Little tufts of dark hair were visible through the visor of his helmet, just barely staying out of obviously wary brown eyes. “Dream, you were the first one awake. Do you know what’s happening?” The blonde simply shrugged his shoulders. 

“I know nothing more than you guys. We’re in a spaceship, the person in Cyan is probably George, and that’s about it.” Bad frowned behind his helmet as Sapnap scoffed.

“Well this probably isn’t good.” Bad said, and Sapnap got to his feet to start pacing immediately. The rhythmic sound of his feet stomping on the metal did little to ease the anxiety of the three men in the room. The black suited man stood up and walked across the room into the hallway to look out the window. He just… stared. “This is probably… really, really-”

“Bad?” George’s voice filled the room, and all eyes turned to the cyan suit. Dream ran to his bedside (only slightly faster than he’d run to Bad), a goofy grin on his face. When green eyes met brown through their visors, the green suited adventurer had to try to suppress his blush. 

“Hey George...” Dream said softly, placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Do you feel okay? Are you hurt?” George stretched while Sapnap barked out a laugh. Dream turned around and glared at his friend. He was just _concerned_ for George- what was wrong with that?

“I think I’m okay-” George’s dark eyes scanned the cold medbay. “Where are we?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out.” Dream said, once again looking around the room. 

George got to his feet and walked to Bad, who was still staring thoughtfully out the window. 

“I mean, there’s uglier places to be lost.” he said, the stars reflecting in his visor. Dream walked out into the hallway as well, looking in either direction. To the left was dark, but to the right there was obviously a well lit room. As the man slinked further in the direction of the light, he heard what sounded like voices. His breath caught in his throat and he tensed.

“Guys!” He whisper-shouted behind him. Bad, George, and Sapnap instantly stopped any conversation that had been flowing between them. Dream motioned with his hand for the three to come forward, and he felt a swell of pride at the fact that he didn’t hear any footsteps against the metal as they crept forward to meet him. Dream looked at his feet to be sure that he wouldn’t trip on any exposed wires as the group crept closer and closer to the voices, which now sounded exceptionally familiar. When he reached the corner, the green eyed adventurer paused to listen. He felt Bad pressed up closely behind him protectively, and could just about hear Sapnap and George’s suppressed breaths slightly further away.

“-And they’re still sleeping. Or on comas, we don’t know.” A voice said, and Dream leant closer to the source. His heart was practically beating out of his chest. 

“It’s been two weeks, they should be awake by now-”

“It took three weeks for you to wake up after Skeppy and I did. It’ll be okay, Tommy.”

“Skeppy?” Bad’s voice rang out, making Dream jump.

“Bad what the fuck!” Sapnap whispered agrily as footsteps approached their hiding place. Bad stepped out from behind Dream to stand in the middle of the hallway. The footsteps sped up until a tan man in a purple suit ran up and wrapped his arms around Bad. Dream was startled that he had no helmet on, but assumed that somehow there was oxygen on this ship. 

“You’re okay…” Skeppy said into Bad’s shoulder, and reached up to pull off the other man’s helmet to get a closer look at him. The smile that stretched across Skeppy’s face was absolutely infectious. More footsteps followed, and Tommy appeared in a blue suit, Tubbo in yellow, and finally Wilbur in red. 

“You’re _all_ okay.” Wilbur said with a sigh. Dream removed his helmet and took a deep breath of strangely crisp air, and George followed. Sapnap stubbornly kept his helmet on. 

“How long have you been waiting for us to wake up?” George asked, coming to stand closely at Dream’s side. If anybody would have suggested that Dream leaned a little closer to the smaller man, he would've immediately denied the accusation. 

“God I don’t know, Wilbur and Skeppy woke up first about five weeks ago. We don’t know how long they’d already been out for, but it’s been a while.” Tommy said. Dream’s blood ran cold.

“ _Five weeks?!?_ ” Sapnap exclaimed, pressing a hand to his forehead. He looked pale. Tubbo reached out a kind hand to steady him as he hyperventilated. 

“Sapnap just breathe, it’s okay.” The younger instructed. 

“How is this okay?!” He yelled at Tubbo, and Tommy stepped forward protectively. “How is _any of this okay?_ ” Sapnap’s eyes swept over everyone standing around him in the hall, tears gathering. “Am I the only one who can see that we are TRAPPED in SPACE?”

“How could you be? You just woke up, we’ve been dealing with this for over a _month_.” Tommy said coldly, touching Tubbo’s shoulder. “And what help have you been?”

“Tommy that’s not fair-” George tried, but as usual their hot-headed friend was on a roll. 

“What’s not fair is that Skeppy and Wilbur had to wake up alone with _no one_ to explain anything to them. I’m pretty sure they figured out pretty quickly that they were trapped in space. You don’t have to _yell at Tubbo_ just because you’re scared.” Sapnap looked at the floor, trying to hide the tears dripping down his cheeks. Wilbur grabbed Tommy’s arm and gave him a look that the freckled man couldn’t quite decipher, but it seemed to generally mean _chill the fuck out._

“Hey. let’s all calm down a little, yeah?” Dream said, trying to diffuse the situation. “This is a lot to take in for us, why don’t we sit down and go over what information you guys have?”

“That’s a wonderful idea, Dream.” Tubbo said, relieved. The man in yellow helped Sapnap to his feet, who murmured an apology in return. Skeppy, arm looped in Bad’s motioned forward.

“Come on, we can talk in the cafeteria.” Skeppy said. Dream’s stomach grumbled loudly at the thought of food, making George chuckle. Sapnap and Tommy brushed past him, obviously sharing in his hunger. The green eyed man sighed and walked forward, knowing that George was following close behind. 

The eight sat around a round table in the rather large cafeteria- at least large in comparison to the size of the crew. Dream observed more large windows staring off into the void, and wondered what in his life had lead to him sitting there, in a spaceship next to George. The whole ship felt old, in a way: some screens seemed to be cracked, some wires frayed, and some panels warped. That made Dream incredibly nervous.

“Okay, so tell us what you’ve found out.” Dream said, looking to Wilbur. Skeppy was too busy staring into Bad’s eyes, and Tommy was fretting over Tubbo. The man in the red suit rested his elbows on the table and took a breath, bouncing his leg beneath the table.

“Really we’ve discovered very little.” He said. “We know that we’re part of something called ‘ _The Experiment_.’ What that means we haven’t figured out yet.” Dream tensed up once again- Being part of an experiment really didn’t sound like a good thing.

“Also some things in the ship are in pretty bad shape. We’ve been trying to start fixing things, but we haven’t made much progress yet.” Tubbo said.

“Is it technical? Dream and I are pretty good at that kind of thing.” George said, earning a nod from the man in yellow.

“A lot of it is trivial, but there’s some wiring problems and issues with the computer in navigation. Without navigation, there’s no way we’re getting back home any time soon.” Tubbo replied.

“I want to hear more about this Experiment thing.” Sapnap interrupted.

“If we knew we would tell you, but that’s about the extent of what we know.” Skeppy looked into Dream’s eyes. “We’ve been trying to figure it out for weeks.” 

“Since Skeppy and I have woken up, we’ve been trying to find everything we can out about this ship. We know it’s called _The Skeld_ , and we know that someone was definitely here before us.” Wilbur said.

“How do you know?” Wilbur turned to Sapnap.

“We found some dried blood on the floor of the electrical room. It looked old, but it’s impossible to say exactly how old.” The man in white nodded in reply, paling once again.

“We think that there’s more information on the computer, but we haven’t been able to boot it up yet.” Tommy said. Dream nodded and turned to George. 

“We should take a look at it, maybe we can figure out what’s up with the wiring.” George nodded and stood from the table with Dream and Tommy.

“I’ll show you guys where it is, follow me douchebags.” The man in red said with a grin, the three of them laughing as Bad shouted “language” behind them as usual. The sounds of conversation faded behind the trio as they walked down a dark hallway into another room, which was filled with explosives and other dangerous looking instruments. “We don’t really spend much time in here-” 

“I’d hope not.” George laughed. Dream didn’t feel so at ease though. Being surrounded by all of these weapons stressed him out. He didn’t like being trapped in confined spaces with deadly instruments when he wasn’t the one in control of them. Not that he didn’t trust his friends, because he did, with his whole heart, but this was an unprecedented situation. Anything could go wrong. 

They moved on down a few more hallways, before the space opened up into navigation. Dream assessed the look of the computer, and was happy to see that any damages must’ve been internal. He and George could fix wires and replace chips, but they couldn’t replace the screen.

The pair got to work taking the base apart. After maybe twenty minutes of poking around, George let out a triumphant squeak that made Dream smile hugely. Tommy came up behind the pair and gazed over their shoulders, careful not to stand on top of any discarded computer parts.

“I figured it out.” George said proudly, before reaching in again, doing something out of Dream’s view for a few minutes, and then leaning back again. “Tommy, try turning it on again.” Tommy walked over to the power button, and the three waited with baited breath while the machine booted up. When the screen lit up, Dream let out a whoop and wrapped his arm around George, whose eyes crinkled in the corners with his smile.

“George, you genius!!” Dream cried out ruffling his best friend’s already fairly messy hair.

“I’ll go grab everyone else.” Tommy said knowingly, before turning from the room and running to get their friends.

After a few moments the two separated, blushes growing on both of their cheeks.

“I’m really glad you’re okay, Dream.” George said quietly. 

“You know there’s no one I’d rather be trapped in space with than you, George.” Dream smirked, and placed a hand on the shorter man’s shoulder. “If anything happened to you, I don’t know what I’d do with myself.” He looked into George’s brown eyes, happy that he was able to see the joy that filled his best friend to the brim.

“Well you have no reason to worry.” His voice was filled with sincerity. “We’re going to get home, together.” Dream nodded, but said nothing in return- there was nothing to say. George just scooted forward until he was enveloped in Dream’s arms once again. It was just for comfort, at least that’s what Dream told himself as his cheeks blazed. 

The moment didn’t last long. “I knew you guys could do it!” Bad’s voice echoed through the halls, and the two men separated. They held each others’ gazes until the other six of their friends rushed into the room. They got to their feet and approached the keyboard, everyone surrounding them. Dream rested his fingers on the keys.

“I hope this helps.” Tubbo said quietly.

“Me too, Tubbo. Me too.” Dream replied, before pressing enter.

The screen lit up and everyone cringed back from the bright white light assaulting their eyes. The first thing Dream noticed was an audio file in the corner, untitled. He looked to George, who nodded at him, and then clicked it open.

“Hello, everyone.” A voice boomed from all around them, seeming to shake the walls. It felt like it was inside of Dream’s head, and it seemed that it was the same for everyone else from the way Wilbur and Tommy reached to their backs, where their swords were normally kept. “If you’re seeing this video, I assume that all eight of you have awoken from your slumbers.”

“More like comas.” Bad said in the pause.

“As you may or may not know, the eight of you are the esteemed subjects in my little experiment. I can’t disclose much to you, but here’s what I can say-” The voice was deep and condescending- Dream hated it. “You men are the future. Our world is crumbling, and we need to find a new planet to call home. You have been identified as eight of the most intelligent, resourceful, and hardworking fighters in their primes right now.” Skeppy and Bad looked nervous, and Sapnap seemed angry, though not as angry as Tommy, who had enough rage in his body to fuel a jet. “Your ship is headed toward a planet which is rumored to be host to life. Your jobs are to wipe out that life, and report back to Earth when the planet is a blank canvas.” Dream blanched.

“This person wants us to commit _mass genocide_?” Wilbur exclaimed. Obviously yes, yes they did.

“Hopefully nothing will go wrong, but we don’t know much about space at this point in time.”

“That keeps up morale.” Skeppy grumbled.

“You were chosen for a reason. You are the Earth’s last hope. Don’t blow it.” was the last thing said before the audio ended.

Everyone was silent for a moment until Sapnap spoke up.

“There’s definitely something more going on here.” Dream couldn’t help but agree.


	2. Answers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream and the crew try to figure out why exactly they’re on The Skeld, and more importantly, why there’s a massive bloodstain in electrical.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!! I wanted to say thank you to my beta, @villerdotpng on tumblr!! They’ve been a huge help, and you should definitely give them a follow :) I’ve decided that updates will be on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and I’ll be sticking to that as best as I can.

After listening to the announcement, there really wasn’t much else for the eight heroes to do. Hell, what  _ could  _ they do? Dream left the navigation room and started to roam the halls without a word, trying to think of some way out of the impossible situation they’d found themselves in.

“Dream-“ he heard George’s voice call.

“Let him think, it’s a lot to process and if he needs time alone to do that, we should give it to him. That goes for any of you-“ Wilbur’s voice faded into the background as Dream continued to roam, putting more and more distance between himself and the rest of the group. 

To him, the entire ship looked mostly the same. He passed through a room that was labelled as Shields, past Communications (he’d be looking in there later) and into a huge storage room. It was filled with various crates of supplies, but Dream didn’t feel much like digging through them for the moment. All he could feel was a weight on his shoulders.

Wilbur had obviously taken the role of leader while he was in a coma, but now that he was awake, would the team want him to call the shots? He was almost always in charge, being the best strategist, but did he really want that responsibility? 

Dream reached up and scratched his forehead. His brain was already hurting, and he’d only been awake for two hours. He kicked an empty metal canister out of his way as he continued to walk. Maybe he’d calm down more if he had an idea of the ship’s layout. To his right he could see the warm yellow light of the cafeteria, but right ahead of him was yet another dark hallway. Of course, him being him, Dream continued forward. 

‘ _ I just need to mess around with the computers. _ ’ Dream thought as he peeked into electrical. ‘ _ If I can figure out the navigation system maybe I can turn this thing around. _ ’ He continued to think as he walked, the hollow sound of his black boots hitting the metal lulling him more and more into his own head. He stopped. ‘ _ But what if I can’t? What if we’re trapped in this ship? What if we get to some alien planet and the inhabitants kill us all? _ ’ His mind raced with the possibilities. The very, very real possibilities. The noise of what Dream assumed to be the engine was drilling into his head. God, that shit was loud.

The engine room felt claustrophobic, with the giant machine putting off waves of intense heat that couldn’t be safe. It loomed over the green suited man, and gave him a sense of foreboding. If absolutely nothing else worked on the ship, at least the engine was one of them. He wondered how the ship had fallen into such disrepair if whoever had sent them into space wanted them to have a successful mission. Maybe they had been asleep longer than they thought? Dream roamed the idea that maybe there had been others on the ship with them, and the eight of them had outlived them. But, that wouldn’t make sense…

There were no other bodies on the ship.

“Just blood.” Dream said aloud to himself, still staring at the engine. A loud  _ thunk _ came from inside, making him jump. His unease only grew, but the hero turned on his heel to go back to electrical, where Wilbur said he’d seen the blood. He felt it was his turn to investigate. Dream heard some voices up the hall towards what looked to be the other engine room, but he ignored them. Being alone gave him more time to think.

When he entered electrical, he went straight to the back of the room. There was a piece of wall jutting out which was covered with a tangle of wires, but Dream bypassed that. When he got to the back, his heart about stopped. Wilbur definitely wasn’t lying. 

There was dark brown staining the entire floor in the back corner of the room, right next to a vent. The switches on the wall nearby were also coated in the old blood- it made Dream nauseous. Not that he wasn’t used to seeing blood back home, but this felt... different. He knelt down closer to see if he could figure out any clues to the cause of death based on the blood splatter- he’d found that useful when playing manhunt with Bad, Sapnap, and George. They’d always respawned, of course, but the friends didn’t particularly enjoy causing each other pain. Blood tracking was useful for seeing how injured they were and how easy they might be to kill. In this situation, Dream just wanted answers.

The stain had obviously been there for a long time, but it was easy to see that an incredible amount of blood must’ve been spilled. It looked honestly like someone had been shot at close range, or maybe been decapitated? 

That realization didn’t do much for Dream’s stomach.

He stood once more, backing away from the mess. This was no coincidence. There had to be a reason why, but what could it be? Maybe it was their captor’s way of keeping them in line, maybe it was a way to scare them into working harder to get to this new planet so that they could escape any danger.

And then of course there was the very real possibility that it hadn’t been intentional and there was just a random death on board, but that was impossible, right? 

Dream continued to look around the electrical room for the next hour, at least. He was lost in the intricate, yet messy, circuitry. He flipped some switches, turned some knobs, and to his delight, some lights on one of the boards turned green. He smiled- maybe if they fixed this piece of shit ship up they’d get home faster.

Suddenly, heavy footsteps approached Dream from behind, startling him into dropping the wrench he’d been holding. He turned around quickly, just to see Tubbo standing there with a sheepish smile on his face.

“Whoops, sorry Dream-” he said awkwardly, fingers disappearing in brown hair to scratch his head. “Everyone is in the cafeteria, George wanted me to come and find you.”

“Don’t worry about it, seriously.” Dream said, walking away from the wall while dusting off his pants. Tubbo stared at the bloodstain with a sad expression.

“I wonder whose blood that was.” he said quietly. Dream cultivated the silence that surrounded the pair as Tubbo continued to stare at the gore. “I wonder if we were supposed to protect them.”

The tone of the younger man’s voice absolutely broke Dream’s heart. He stepped forward to wrap an arm around his yellow suited shoulders in some sort of comforting gesture. 

“We can’t think like that, okay? Maybe, that blood was a warning. Maybe there really is something deeper going on here that we don’t know about…” Dream trailed off, turning the two of them around to walk out of electrical and back towards the cafeteria.

“That’s what Tommy said. He thinks there’s a murderer on board somewhere.” Tubbo replied, cracking a smile. Dream laughed lightly.

“I think it’s pretty safe to assume that we aren’t going to be murdered. I mean, we’ve all been friends forever- if anyone was going to be a murderer, it would be Sapnap trying to kill me for winning manhunt the fourth time in a row.” Dream joked. He’d never been particularly close with Tubbo, but he still considered the younger to be a loyal friend. He kept Tommy in line, which was definitely a relief. Still, those two were quite the mischievous pair, taking after Dream’s own heart. Wilbur was to Tommy and Tubbo what he himself was to George and Sapnap- Tubbo kind of reminded him of George in some ways. Bright, bubbly, brave, and smart. 

Dream had to snap himself out of that- thinking about George always made his insides feel all weird.

“If we died, we’d just respawn wouldn’t we?” Tubbo asked. Dream thought about it.

“I really don’t know, no one’s ever really thought about that I guess.”

“Tommy doesn’t think we’d respawn out here, but Wilbur disagrees.” Dream rolled his eyes and ruffled the younger man’s hair as they walked into the cafeteria and separated.

“Tubbo, what do  _ you _ think?” Dream asked. Tubbo didn’t answer until they reached the table in the center of the room where everyone else was conversing.

“I’m not really sure, to be honest. I really hope Wilbur is right though.” He said. 

“Impossible, Wilbur is incapable of being right about literally anything.” Sapnap cut in as the pair sat down, earning a punch in the arm from the man in red.

“Says you,  _ Mr. I Literally Cannot Win At Manhunt _ .” Skeppy teased, earning a slight laugh and a high five from Bad. Sapnap frowned.

“Not true.” He pouted crossing his arms. 

“It’s true, you just don’t wanna admit it.” Tommy shrugged with a smirk, obviously trying to rile up the man in white.

“I. Am. A. Manhunt.  _ GOD _ .” Sapnap huffed, banging his fists on the table before him in a fit of babyrage. 

While the other six continued to bicker about Sapnap and Wilbur, Dream turned to George.

“Are you okay?” George asked, the concern written all over his face. Dream felt a little shock of guilt at the question.

“Of course I am, why?” he asked, trying to drown out the sounds of arguing that were growing louder around the pair. George looked down at his hands in his lap for a moment, as Bad called Sapnap stupid for still wearing his helmet while no one else was in the background. 

“I… I don’t know. I guess—when you walked off earlier, you looked upset. Like, I know this whole situation is completely terrible, but—I don’t know… I thought maybe you’d talk to us about what was going through your head.” George said. 

Dream thought for a moment before replying and drummed his fingers lightly on the table.

“I just needed to collect my thoughts, is all. I went and explored the ship.” Dream wasn’t sure if he should tell George what he thought the blood stain was from, but there was really no use in hiding it. George wasn’t gonna go into shock at the news or anything. 

“I took a look at that blood stain Wilbur mentioned earlier.” The cyan suited hero scooted forward in interest, making Dream crack a smile despite the gory thoughts flashing through his head concerning the fate of the blood’s owner. “I think whoever’s blood that was, may have been decapitated.” Dream finished, and the whole room instantly went silent. George went pale.

“Why do you think that?” George questioned, almost meekly. Everyone was looking at the hero in green as he tried to find a way to word his answer that wouldn’t cause any of his friends to freak or pass out.

“The amount of blood and the way it’s dispersed just… reminded me of something that happened in a manhunt a few years ago.” Dream said. Bad looked away.

“I don’t wanna talk about it.” Bad grumbled. Skeppy rested a hand on his shoulder.

“I don’t get it, why would the person conducting the experiment want us in a ship that’s damaged and has had a fucking murder in it?” Tommy reasoned, earning a sharp  _ language _ from Bad.

“You’re right, what would they have to gain?” Tubbo added.

Everyone was silent for a moment in thought.

“Literally every way I think about it, there’s no positive for this guy.” Wilbur said. “If he wants us to discover this new world, why wouldn’t he give us the proper tools to do so? In a ship that’s fallen into such disrepair, I don’t know how he expects us to take over a planet and return to Earth. It just makes no sense.”

“Maybe something went wrong along the way? Maybe he put us into comas for too long.” Dream thought aloud, Sapnap murmuring in agreement.

“But with a mission this important, you’d think that all of the bases would be covered.” Wilbur replied.

“Wilbur is right, if what that guy said was true about the Earth falling apart, you’d think he’d send more people to colonize a new one. How does he expect eight people to destroy all life on a planet?” Dream said, looking around at his friends faces. These men were all smart and strong- maybe the best adventurers back on Earth- but were they really supposed to be enough for a task this big?

“And on top of that, how would he expect us to just  _ be okay _ with killing everything? Does he think we’d just…” George said. He was obviously uncomfortable with the idea of killing innocents- how could he not be?

“Lose all of our morals? Seems like it.” Sapnap shrugged.

“I-I don’t want to be a murderer.” Tubbo looked shaken, and Dream couldn’t blame him. He was the youngest in the group- he shouldn’t have such an awful task on his shoulders. “I can hardly swing a sword at anything that isn’t a monster, how am I going to-” Tears gathered in his eyes, and Wilbur reached over to comfort him.

“But what if it’s our only chance to get back to Earth?” Tommy questioned. Everyone stared at him. He raised his hands up in surrender to the situation. “I’m just putting it out there guys.” 

“Tommy, there’s gotta be another way.” Bad said, looking down in thought. A smile crossed his face. “Maybe we can turn this around and go back home, let’s be optimistic.”

“We’ve been out here for probably two months, it’ll take a while to get back.” Wilbur bit his lip. George got to his feet, dragging Dream up with him.

“Well let’s not waste any more time, then.” George took his hand and interlaced their fingers, making Dream feel all weird inside again. His hands were soft, Dream realized. “Dream and I are going to fix the navigation. Right now.” As Dream was dragged out, Sapnap’s voice cut in behind them.

“Um guys, I’m still slightly concerned about the blood-”

“That’s a problem for after we’re on course for Earth—it’ll still be a long trip.” Skeppy said, rising from the table. “I think I’m going to get some sleep.” He said with a yawn. Bad got to his feet as well. 

“Sounds good to me. This has been the most exhausting day of my life.” He said, following Skeppy down some stairs into sleeping quarters.

“You guys have been awake for like five hours.” Tommy grumbled. Wilbur rolled his eyes at Tommy, climbing up out of his seat.

“Tubbo, you wanna catch some Z’s?” The younger man nodded.

“My head hurts, I think it’ll help if I get some sleep.” Wilbur, Tommy, and Tubbo looked to Sapnap, who was still seated at the table. “You gonna come?” Sapnap was pulled out of his thoughts at the question, looking to Dream and George, who were still in the hall.

“I think I’m going to explore the compound a little bit. I don’t like not knowing where I am.” He replied. 

“Do you want to come help George and I with the computer?” Dream asked, but he could tell that his friend could go for some time alone. Sure enough, his offer was waved off.

“Nah, you lovebirds go on your own, I’m no good with hacking.” He said dismissively, seeming to laugh at the blush building on Dream’s cheeks as he dropped George’s hand. “I just need some time to think this through.” George nodded.

“Be safe, Sap.”

“Always.” The man said, before walking across the room and down the medbay’s hallway.

Dream followed George back through weapons to navigation, where they once again approached the computer. When he looked up, Dream could see nothing but the vast void of space- it made him feel tiny, insignificant.

But then he looked at the man next to him, and realized that maybe he wasn’t so insignificant after all.

“I think we’ll be able to crack this.” George reassured, his face contorted in thought. Dream sighed.

“I don’t know what we’re gonna do if we can’t.” The screen of the computer itself was just white, except for the audio file which was discovered earlier that day. George typed something into a search bar that he brought up, but Dream wasn’t really paying attention to the screen. He really just saw George’s face, highlighted by the harsh white light. 

_ He really was incredible, wasn’t he? _

Dream and George had been inseparable since they met as children. They’d always been the pair, and since they became friends with Bad and Sapnap, they’d put up with relentless, but good-natured- teasing from their friends about being in love with each other. And Dream denied it, of course, but sometimes he wondered if he really did. 

Love George, that is.

He had so many memories with the guy. Cuddling close in a cave up in the mountains to conserve body heat while Bad and Sapnap were mining, sharing a boat to cross vast oceans, and even raising Patches together. It was always the two of them, and they knew everything about each other.

“I think I found the navigation files, but…” George began, pulling Dream out of his thoughts.

“ _ But?” _ He parroted. 

George clicked around a little more, concern growing more and more on his face.

“This can’t be right. It says that we aren’t going anywhere.” George said with uncertainty. Dream nudged him to the side to take a closer look at the code.

“What?” Dream asked, but it was true. Unless there was  _ supposed _ to be nothing in the destination coordinates, they were just floating aimlessly through space. Dream backed away, hands flying to his temples. 

‘ _ What the fuck is going on? _ ’ Dream thought. George looked… angry? No, it was frustration that was causing him to tense his shoulders. The older man turned around, his brows furrowed.

“This has to be some kind of joke.” George deadpanned. Dream had to agree—if they weren’t going to some planet, then why the hell were they in space? 

“Why are we out here? Why did the man in the audio file  _ lie _ ?” Dream questioned. He walked up to the screen again, thinking hard. “Maybe that’s why the ship is in such bad shape? Maybe something glitched…”

“You know what?” George said, Dream turned to look at him. “I’m gonna go to bed. I can’t…” George brought a hand for his forehead and huffed out a breath. “think about this anymore.” Dream nodded in understanding.  _ He  _ didn’t want to think about it either, but when he turned to look at the screen, he knew that he had to figure it out. He had to solve the puzzle.

“You go on without me, I’ll be there later.” The green suited man muttered, his mind already racing with possibilities, and his fingers typing away on the old keyboard.

“Alright…” George paused, but Dream didn’t turn, too engrossed in his work. “Goodnight Dream, be careful.” 

“Of course, always.” Dream replied noncommittal, eyes just about glazing over. He hardly noticed George’s footsteps receding behind him. When he glanced up for just a moment to look out the window, the reflection of the stars in the thick glass reminded Dream of George, and how his eyes sparkled like actual diamonds.

‘ _ No,’ _ Dream thought. ‘ _ way more beautiful than diamonds. _ ’

“Not the time.” He muttered, before returning his attention to the code on the screen and cracking his knuckles. 

He had work to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think it would be cool if people posted their theories about who the killer is in the comments after each chapter. Anywayyy I hope you enjoyed!


	3. Suspect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The brutal murder of one of his crewmates makes Dream question who he can really trust.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yet another shout of to @villerdotpng on Tumblr for beta-ing this chapter!! I also wanted to thank everyone who has left kudos, subscribed, bookmarked, and especially those who have commented. This has been a huge project for me and I’ve already prewritten up to chapter five of this fic. I get really anxious when I feel like people don’t enjoy my writing and it makes me not want to continue out of fear. All of the support has been overwhelming, and I can’t thank you enough.

Dream awoke to a scream. 

His head shot up from the keyboard in navigation, where he’d obviously fallen asleep after working for hours the night before when George had left. Without being able to see the sun he had no clue what time it was, but the pain in the blonde’s neck indicated that it was more time than he would’ve liked. Before he could process his aching limbs, a second scream gave Dream goosebumps- it sounded like Sapnap. He leapt to his feet, ignoring the throbbing in his head, and bolted out the door, leaving the new coordinates entered in the blinking code on the computer.

‘ _ Please don’t let anyone be hurt. _ ’ Repeated over and over again in his mind as he ran through weapons, through the cafeteria, past medbay, and finally to where everyone was gathered- in the hall next to the security room. Dream hadn’t been in there yet, but he was planning on checking it out that day.

Now he supposed he wouldn’t have to. 

Wilbur, Tommy, and Skeppy were standing with their backs to him, silently watching whatever the fuck was happening in front of them. All Dream could hear was the sounds of retching and a fist pounding on the floor. 

“What’s going on? Where’s Sapnap?” Dream questioned, panic rising in his voice. Wilbur turned around, face white as a ghost. 

“He’s there, but-” Wilbur pointed to the other side of George, who was knelt down next to Sapnap as he vomited the whole contents of his stomach onto the metal floor. Dream pushed past Wilbur and immediately dropped to his knees beside his friend, while Bad patted the white suited man on the back.

“God, are you okay?” Dream asked, pushing Sapnap’s hair out of his pale face. He was sweating bullets, but was icy cold. His suit, which used to be a pristine white, was covered in spots of browning- was that  _ blood _ ? Dream and George locked eyes, seeming to share the same thought: ‘ _ this isn’t good _ .’

“He uh, doesn’t seem too okay.” Tommy said, his voice shaking. Dream looked back and glared at him. How could he make a joke when there was something obviously seriously wrong with Sapnap?

“ _ Breathe _ , Sap. Just breathe.” George tried to soothe their sobbing friend. Dream wasn’t the best at comforting people, but tears came to his own eyes seeing Sapnap in that condition. “It’ll be okay.” George continued. “But you have to tell us what’s-”

“No-” Sapnap croaked out between hyperventilations.

“Please tell us what happened, let us help-” Bad tried, continuing to rub circles into the brown haired man’s back. At that, Sapnap’s eyes shot up, bloodshot and messy, and locked with Dream’s in an attempt to convey a message without speaking a word. When a person has known someone long enough, they get good at reading each other’s minds- Dream and Sapnap were no exception.

Dream’s heart went cold when he realized what his friend was trying to say. 

“Guys…” The blonde spoke as Sapnap continued to wail, giving up no more information. But Dream knew. “Where is Tubbo.” Silence from everyone, except for the haunting cries coming from their friend. Dream stood up, looking at the stunned people behind him. “Where. The  _ fuck _ .” He got up in their faces- he didn’t care if he was being a dick. “Is  _ Tubbo?”  _ No one spoke for a moment, until Tommy’s voice carried over.

“I… I was with him ten minutes ago, in-” Tommy’s eyes widened and shot to the door of security. Dream wasted no time in walking to the room’s entrance, ignoring Sapnap begging him not to go in.

“Dream, STOP!! Stop it, don’t let him go in. George, make him  _ stop _ !” Out of the corner of his eye, Dream watched Sapnap dissolve into another vomiting spell, this one was helped through by Bad as George had gotten to his feet to join Dream. “Don’t look, it’s  _ awful _ , don’t-“ He coughed out between sobs, but the two men ignored his pleas. Before entering, the blonde turned to face the rest of his friends.

“No one else come in here. We’ll tell you what’s going on.” He turned specifically to Skeppy. “Skeppy, you and Wilbur need to keep Tommy out.” 

“You’ve got it.” Skeppy replied as Wilbur nodded and Tommy’s face reddened in anger.

“Hold on, why not me? Tubbo is my, my-”

“Brother. He’s basically your brother, and if Sapnap’s reaction is any indication, I don’t know if you’d be okay seeing whatever happened to him.” George said, turning to enter the room. Dream followed, not before catching a glimpse of tears rolling down Tommy’s face. 

The first thing Dream noticed upon entering the room was the wall. He hadn’t looked at the floor yet, but on the wall on the opposite side of the room to the left of the door was a giant splotch of runny blood at about the height of Dream’s shoulder. He walked up closer, refusing to look at anything else out of fear of what he might see.

“Holy  _ shit _ .” George whispered from behind Dream- obviously he hadn’t looked at the floor either. 

Neither of them wanted to confirm what was obviously true. 

Dream stepped cautiously closer to the wall to inspect the blood splatter, which he could now see had bits of hair, and-

Dream gagged, turning away.

Pieces of what looked to be skull were stuck to the wall as well, dripping down in the river of Tubbo’s blood. At this point there was no turning back. 

Dream turned his head downwards, and the first thing he registered in his brain was the pool of blood on the floor. It was obviously very fresh, and the blonde could smell the metallic tang of it strongly. But then everything  _ else _ began to register, and Dream had to reach back to grab George to confirm to himself that, yes, this was real, and no, he would never forget this until the day he died.

Tubbo’s body was laid on its side, head closer to the security monitor. The back of his skull was completely smashed in, with chunks of what Dream was praying to God weren’t his brain littering the floor nearby. His dark hair was matted with quickly drying blood, but looking at the boy’s actual face made the blonde feel like he was going to pass out. He could feel George pull away from him, and while Dream didn’t turn around, he knew that the other man had run out of the room, and could hear him having a panic attack in the hallway.

Tubbo’s skin was white, and his…

Dream gagged, bile rising and stinging the back of his throat.

His  _ eye _ , was staring lifelessly to the wall, the brown dull and sad: nothing like the Tubbo Dream had been talking to the day before. His other eye, however, was resting almost daintily on his cheek, the ligaments trailing back into the socket which had some sort of metal object sticking out of it, covered in a thin layer of already dried gore. His neck had a long, jagged hole torn into it, and his mouth hung open as if he were just breathing through it while he slept. 

Dream dropped to his knees beside his dead friend, and let his tears fall out of his eyes and roll down his cheeks. There was nothing he could do except try to ignore the nausea, and cry. He felt empty in a way he never had when one of his friends died back on Earth. This was so much more different.

This was obviously permanent.

“Dream!” A voice yelled. The man felt strong hands close onto his shoulders and all but drag him out of the room. It may have been Wilbur, but how would he know? All that he could see was Tubbo’s one eye hanging out of the socket, covered in sticky blood, and the metal  _ something  _ sticking out of his brain.

The blonde, for possibly the first time in his life, was speechless. 

“Dream what was it?” Tommy cried, running forward to grip both of his arms, shaking him roughly. Bad tried to pull him off, but it was no use. “WHAT IS WRONG WITH TUBBO? WHY CAN’T I SEE HIM?” Tommy screamed, tears and snot running down his face with no end in sight. Dream just… stared at him. The words wouldn’t come to his brain.

“He- he’s  _ dead _ , Tommy.” George said from his place against the wall. Dream looked over to see George hunched over, holding his sides. His chest rose and fell rapidly, just as Sapnap’s was doing. Tommy immediately stopped shaking the blonde, but his grip tightened on his arms.

“That’s not a funny joke.” Tommy whispered, this time allowing Wilbur and Skeppy to peel his hands off of Dream’s suit. “Whatever sick prank you guys are trying to pull is fucking  _ cruel. _ ” He looked around, but the faces around him told the truth- this was no joke. 

The temperature in the hallway felt like it dropped ten degrees, but really nothing had changed. 

‘ _ Well, everything’s changed.’  _ Dream thought, closing his hands into fists in an attempt to stop the shaking.

“Let me see him.” Wilbur said, and neither Dream nor George, or even Sapnap, attempted to stop him from entering. They all would have to see Tubbo’s body at some point. The brunette walked in, Tommy on his heels. God, the scream that left that room…

Dream shivered.

He’d never forget the cries of absolute  _ agony _ that left Tommy’s mouth.

“I guess respawn doesn’t work in space...” Skeppy said as Bad walked over to Dream, sitting on the floor beside the blonde. Dream looked at his friend, who had silent tears rolling down his face.

“How bad is it?” He asked quietly. Dream didn’t say anything- just stared at the brunette blankly.

And then he leant over to sob into the black suited man’s chest. A hand played with his hair as another body pressed up against Dream’s other side, burrowing his way under the blonde’s left arm. A smell of cinnamon hit his nose, just barely breaking through the scent of blood which had been trapped there for the past few awful minutes.  _ George _ .

Dream held George closer as they cried over the brutal loss of their friend. When he opened his eyes for a moment, he saw that Sapnap had pushed himself into Bad’s side. 

The four of them had gone through everything together.

They’d have to make it through this too.

“Guys…” Skeppy said, making the four look up just as Tommy walked out of the room, looking like he was about to pass out, and Wilbur followed, carrying Tubbo’s limp body. Dream couldn’t get over how- how  _ unfair _ this was. Tubbo was just a kid, and someone, someone…

Dream froze.

Someone on this ship killed him. 

Dream looked around at these people, not one of their faces dry from tears, or their hands not shaking, and wondered who the hell the culprit could be. Because if he found out, they’d die way more brutally than Tubbo had.

“Let’s take him to the airlock.” Wilbur expressed shakily, holding the limp form in his arms tight to his chest. Dream shared a look with George, Bad, and Sapnap- they knew what that meant. 

As he turned to leave the hall, Wilbur obviously didn’t give a fuck about the blood staining his suit- neither did anyone else. Tommy had it on his hands, Dream on his knees, George on his boots, Sapnap on his whole suit, same as Wilbur, from trying to bring the kid back to life. Bad had some of it on his suit that had rubbed off from Dream and Sapnap. The only one whose suit was clean was Skeppy, who walked over to Wilbur to look down at his dead friend, only to sink to the floor in despair.

The hall was deathly quiet while everyone got shakily to their feet. Other than the occasional sniffle, they were all just in shock.

It really disturbed Dream that Tommy had said nothing since exiting security.

George interlaced his fingers with Dream’s as they walked, neither looking at each other. They knew that they needed the comfort. The blonde squeezed his best friend’s hand, and despite the situation, his heart skipped a beat when that squeeze was returned.

When the group reached the airlock, Wilbur immediately reached for the release lever, before being stopped by Tommy.

“Wait!” He cried, putting out a hand. “At least- at  _ least _ let me say goodbye.” Wilbur nodded and turned to Tommy, who just started to cry again. 

“Tommy, be strong for him.” Wilbur consoled.

“He wouldn’t want you to fall apart over him-” Bad tried, but was cut off.

“His  _ name _ is  _ Tubbo _ .” Tommy snapped without turning away from the body. “And whoever did this…” Dream could hear the fury in his voice. “Is going to  _ pay _ .” Tommy punched the wall, splitting his knuckles. 

“Tommy don’t hurt yourself-” Skeppy fretted, but it was too late. 

“Don’t hurt myself? One of YOU  _ KILLED _ THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN MY LIFE!” Tommy screamed.

Dream didn’t know what to feel other than pain. It hurt to see Tommy like this. It hurt to see Tubbo fucking  _ dead _ . It hurt to see Sapnap staring into space, glassy-eyed from the trauma. It hurt to see Bad and Skeppy trying to hold Tommy back from Wilbur, and it hurt more than anything in the world to see the way Wilbur looked down at Tubbo, so small in his arms, knowing that he was gone from their lives forever. But somehow George’s hand in his own made everything just ever so slightly less hopeless.

“TOMMY SNAP OUT OF IT!” Wilbur yelled, which immediately silenced the blue suited man. Wilbur took a deep breath, and looked at everyone. “I don’t know what happened to Tubbo, but this was no accident. Someone here is a murderer.” Dream was confused when Wilbur seemed to look directly at George. “But whoever it was, I’m not concerned with it right now. I’m only concerned with letting Tubbo go with the most respect as possible.”

‘ _ He was literally about to throw Tubbo’s body out of the airlock before Tommy stopped him _ .’ Dream thought to himself, narrowing his eyes a bit. 

“Tubbo, you were a brave, honest, and loving man. My life is going to be forever changed without you in it…” Wilbur continued, adjusting Tubbo so that his wounds weren’t as noticeable. “I love you, soldier.” His voice cracked at the end as he tried to hide his tears.

“Tubbo, you were literally my brother, you little fucker. And I will avenge you. When I get back to Earth, I will make sure that everyone remembers you as the hero you a-  _ were _ .” Tommy said, his sadness obviously shifting to rage. “Your death will not be forgotten.”

Dream thought of Tubbo’s smile from just the day before—how bright and hopeful it seemed. “This shouldn’t have happened to you Tubbo. You didn’t deserve this. But I promise you, we will make this right.” Dream choked out, receiving a comforting hand squeeze from George.

“Do we…  _ have  _ to eject the body?” Skeppy asked. Dream knew he wasn’t super close with Tubbo either, but he found the other man’s generally calm demeanor comforting. Especially around people like Sapnap and Tommy.

“We really should… I don’t want to put Tubbo out there as much as any of you guys but leaving his body in here to rot just feels… wrong.” George said, Dream nodding in agreement.

“Besides… “ Tommy said, a ghost of a smile on his lips while he brushed the hair out of Tubbo’s eyes one last time. “Tubbo always loved looking at the stars.” The blonde nodded to Wilbur, who set Tubbo’s body on the floor, backed up and out of the airlock, closed the door, and put a shaking hand on the release switch. Dream’s chest felt tight as he gazed through the glass to look at Tubbo just lying there, motionless. Hair sprawled out full of blood, limbs pale, and his previously yellow suit turned brown from his own blood drying made him look nothing like the person they knew him to be.

“Goodbye, Tubbo.” Bad said as Wilbur flipped the switch. 

Dream didn’t know what he expected to happen when the door opened. Maybe he thought it would be slow for some reason.

It wasn’t slow.

Tubbo was gone in a split second, sucked out into the infinite vacuum of space.

Sapnap’s sobs continued to fill the air as Wilbur turned around, brows furrowed.

“Someone has some fucking explaining to do.” Wilbur threatened. Bad looked like he wanted to say language, but decided against it.

“Let’s all talk in the cafeteria,” Dream said. “I- I don’t want to be here anymore.” Wilbur nodded, then led them all back through the ship and to the same Cafeteria table that they’d been sitting at the day before. Everyone noticed the space that Wilbur and Tommy left for Tubbo.

“Okay…” Bad started, looking around the table. “Does anyone have something to confess?” As expected, no one spoke up.

“How about this,” George tried. “Where was everybody when Tubbo…” He trailed off.

“Well I can tell you where I was,” Tommy said. “I had been in security with Tubbo since we woke up, looking at the cameras and trying to find information about the experiment in the desk. I went to the Cafeteria to make us some food, and Wilbur was here.” He gestured to Wilbur, who nodded in confirmation. “And like a, you know, normal person, I stayed to talk to him. I was still talking to Wilbur when we heard Sapnap scream.” Tommy glared at Sapnap, who was just snapping out of his stupor.

“What are you looking at me like that for?” Sapnap asked, voice shaking. “I’m the one who found him, how could I have killed him?” Tommy scoffed.

“What, do you think we’re stupid or something? You obviously killed him and faked finding him so that we wouldn’t suspect you!” Tommy accused, the volume of his voice rising with every word.

“Guys, let’s not point fingers-” Skeppy tried, but was just interrupted by Sapnap.

“I was in the lower engine, trying to figure out why it keeps making those thumping noises.” Sapnap said. “I was walking up the hall to go back to the Cafeteria for some food, and I saw blood on the floor. I walked in to investigate, and-” He looked like he was going to pass out, so Bad stopped him.

“You were fucking covered in his  _ blood _ !” The blonde exclaimed. Sapnap looked horrified.

“Yeah, from  _ trying to see if I could help _ !” Sapnap rebutted, getting momentum.

“Guys-” Wilbur tried, but was ignored.

“You know what Tommy, I bet it was you!” Sapnap accused, face reddening. Any indication that the man had been puking and crying his brains out forty minutes ago was gone. All that was left was a rage that Dream hadn’t seen since their last manhunt.

“How the hell could it be  _ me? _ ” Tommy yelled.

“Um how could it not?!” Sapnap snapped hysterically. “It would be the perfect cover, wouldn’t it?  _ Oh I could never kill Tubbo, he's like my brother! No one would suspect I’d ever hurt him! _ ”

“That’s fucking ridiculous-”

“But it makes sense! You killed Tubbo and then left to make food with Wilbur, leaving someone else to find the body so that you could frame them. I bet whatever was sticking out of his eye is something that was already in security!” Sapnap put together, gaining more and more confidence as he pieced the story together.

“You’re fucking insane-”

“Do you think I would’ve  _ faked  _ vomiting until my throat bled? Do you really think I would fucking  _ do that?? _ ”

“Enough!” Dream yelled, pounding a fist on the table. The room quieted once more. Dream took in a slow breath, trying to center himself. “We know that Wilbur was in the Cafeteria already when Tommy got there, so it couldn’t have been him. Bad, what about you?” The man in question was wide eyed, and stuttered upon answering- Dream really couldn’t blame him.

“I-I was in Medbay, with Skeppy.” Dream turned to Skeppy. 

“Can you confirm that?” Skeppy nodded quickly in response.

“We were just talking there all morning, going through and taking stock of the medical supplies to see if we were prepared for any major injuries or anything. And we were checking out that scan thing, but neither of us left.” Skeppy said.

“Well I mean Skeppy walked out for like, two or three minutes to check out some red blinking light-”

“It turned out to just be a camera-” Skeppy said sheepishly.

“But,” Bad continued, “That wouldn’t have been enough time for him to get all the way to security, then get back. Plus, I would’ve seen him walk past the door.” Bad said.

“What about you, Dream?” Wilbur questioned folding his arms over his chest. Even though Dream knew he wasn’t guilty, his heart rate still picked up.

“I was in navigation all night, trying to get some answers. I even put in the coordinates for Earth-” Dream said, trying to keep his voice as level as possible. “I fell asleep on the keyboard, and I woke up when Sapnap screamed-”

“But you could’ve gone over there in that time-” Skeppy pointed out. Dream started sweating, but Tommy spoke up.

“I would’ve seen him leave Nav on the cameras- if he’d gone after I went to the Cafeteria, he wouldn’t have had time to get there, make the kill, and get back to Nav before Sapnap found...T-Tubbo.” Tommy choked out the words.

“Plus, if what Sapnap and Skeppy are saying is true, Dream would’ve had to pass one of them on his way to security.” George defended. Dream felt that gross fluttery feeling again. That was like, the most inappropriate time for it possible.

“Okay, so what about you, George, where were you?” Skeppy pressed.

‘ _ Since when is Skeppy so accusatory? _ ’ Dream thought as George started to answer.

“I was in admin, trying to get more information about the ship.” George said calmly. “And while we’re on the subject, I think we could get to Earth a lot faster if the ship was fixed up-”

“Why are you changing the subject?” Tommy challenged, and George looked kind of hurt.

“Tommy you don’t need to attack him, he just wants to help us get home faster so  _ nothing _ like this ever happens again.” Dream’s voice felt like it dropped ten octaves while defending George- obviously it worked because no one came after the brunette again. George shot Dream a grateful smile, and then turned back to the table.

“We’re no closer than we were twenty minutes ago.” Wilbur said, wiping a hand over his face.

“Look, whoever did this must’ve had a reason-” Bad started.

“Maybe someone thought he was a stowaway or something, I don’t even know-” Sapnap said, glaring daggers at Tommy.

“Okay here’s what we’re gonna do.” Dream said, trying to capture everyone’s attention. “We move in groups of three, at the very least. Whoever the culprit is won’t be able to take on two at once. Until we get back to Earth, that’s the safest option.” Wilbur opened his mouth to argue, but Dream supposed the look on his face must’ve said no to argue, because the brunette promptly closed it.

“Fine. But I’m going nowhere with  _ him _ .” Sapnap said, nodding his head in Tommy’s direction.

“Right back at you.” The blonde replied coldly.

“Hey George?” Bad said, trying to change the subject before two of their friends ripped each other apart. “What repairs do we need to make to get this muffin back to Earth?” He asked quickly. Dream felt George loosen up beside him before answering.

“Alright, so first, there’s this keycard in Admin…” George explained, but Dream wasn’t really listening.

All that he could see every time he closed his eyes was the slit in Tubbo’s neck, and his eye socket ripped apart, flaps of flesh hanging from his forehead, and the back of his head fairing no better after being bashed in, brains leaking onto the floor mixed in his blood like some sort of cannibal soup.

And now that his friends were at each other's throats, Dream knew that it would be a miracle if all of them made it back to Earth safely. He looked around at all of the men at the table, eyes red-ringed from crying, and voices scratchy from screams and arguing. Despite knowing that one of them was a killer, Dream still loved them all like family. 

And if they wanted to survive, they’d have to learn to work together like one, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I’m sorry for my Tubbo fans. Also, I prewrite these chapters pretty far in advance so when you guys comment stuff that’s kind of right I get really excited about it. I hope you continue with the theories because they’re super fun to read!!


	4. Bonds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, a huge thank you to my beta @villerdotpng on Tumblr :))

Just over two weeks had passed since Tubbo’s murder, and desbite the obvious sadness that washed over everybody, spirits were higher than before. The loss of their friend was weighing endlessly on everyone on the ship, but a sort of calm had passed over the new crew of The Skeld.   


The first few days after, everyone was on edge. Sapnap refused to be in the same room as Tommy for a while, and whenever they were together, there was a shouting match. Wilbur was continuously shooting accusatory glaces at George, which angered Dream into avoiding the man in red. Bad and Skeppy kept mostly to themselves, whispering and throwing glances around every few seconds. It was tense, to say the least

But slowly, people began to let down their guards out of necessity. There was no hint of guilt from anybody- no clues, no nothing. It made Dream uneasy.

Him, George, and Sapnap were in admin trying their hardest to hack into the computers, which for some reason had much tighter security on them than the one in Navigation- even after weeks they’d hardly made a dent.

Dream sat back in his chair and huffed, stretching his arms out like a cat. “Guys this isn’t working.” He said, stating the obvious. He rubbed his eyes roughly to give them a break from the blue light.

“I know but-” Sapnap wiped his sleeve across his forehead to rid it of accumulated sweat. “-we can’t really afford to give up.” Dream stayed quiet for a moment, watching his friends work. Both had furrowed brows, and George even had a slight bit of tongue poking out from between chapped lips due to focus. The blonde, however, was sick of the busywork, to say the least. 

Dream cracked his knuckles. If he was being honest with himself, the green suited hero felt that his talents would be better used in rewiring electrical or defending the ship from the space debris that was constantly knocking into them. Hell, he’d even take cleaning out the O2 filters or refueling the engines over sitting at these damn computers all day, trying everything his brain could think of to unlock them with no success. But despite that, he knew that George and Sapnap wouldn’t be giving up on the information that could be stored in those computers any time soon, and Dream couldn’t in good conscience leave them alone together when there was a murderer on board still. But then there was a bigger question-

Did he think it was Sapnap?

Dream looked at his friend, so desperate to prove to everybody that he was innocent that the bags under his eyes had bags from sleepless nights spent in admin. Could it be a cover? Possibly, but… the blonde really wanted nothing more than for his old friend to be innocent.

Most of the reason he wanted to be with the pair wasn’t because of distrust, it was because if anything were to happen to George, Dream didn’t know what he’d do to himself. He swore after Tubbo died that he would be George’s last line of defense, and wouldn’t let anything bad happen to him. He shook his head lightly to rid himself of the thought. George could take care of himself, and didn’t need Dream fussing over him all the time like he was some sort of defenseless child.

‘ _ It won’t come to that as long as you can get back to Earth. _ ’ Dream thought, and not for the first time that day, considered forcing George and Sapnap to come with him to join Bad and Skeppy in the reactor to fix the wiring.

“What if we’re doing this for nothing? There are so many other repairs to be made.” The blonde thought aloud. “I mean we’re at least a month and a half from home- maybe less if we can get this piece of shit back into working order…”

“We can’t just leave this to when we get back to Earth. We’ll have other problems to deal with when we get back.” George said, eyes not leaving the screen in front of him. Sapnap stopped typing for a moment, but resumed quickly.

‘ _ Right, other problems _ .” Dream thought, standing up to stretch. Every time anyone even  _ alluded _ to Tubbo, Dream felt a sharp pang of guilt in his gut, as well as experiencing various degrees of dizziness. He knew he wasn’t the killer, but he stayed awake at night thinking about things he could’ve done differently that maybe would have meant that Tubbo would still be with them. If he’d just gone with George to bed, maybe he would’ve volunteered to check out security with Tommy and Tubbo, thus meaning that the youngest wouldn’t have been left alone. Maybe if he’d discovered the body he could have stopped the bleeding and he’d have lived at the very least… though the scale of Tubbo’s injuries made that seem impossible.

Dream knew these were just wishful thoughts, but they still ran through his head every waking moment of his day. 

What could  _ he  _ have done to save the man in yellow? He was supposed to be their leader, and he just let one of them—

“I can hear you thinking from over here.” George said, standing from his chair and walking to his troubled friend, placing his hands gently on Dream’s tense shoulders. The blonde unclenched his fists and took a deep breath.

“I’m sorry-” He started, before George shushed him. The shorter man’s eyes were filled with worry, but still as bright as ever. 

God, how Dream loved him-

The blonde stiffened again.

Loved his  _ eyes _ .

“Don’t apologize…” George said softly, reaching up to push a lock of hair off of Dream’s forehead with gentle fingers. The action gave Dream goosebumps, and he prayed with every fiber of his being that George wouldn’t notice them. His neck felt all hot and he once again got that weird fluttery feeling in his stomach. Their eyes met once more. “None of this is your fault, Dream.” He promised. “There was nothing you could’ve done. I know it hurts, but we need you to be strong-” He paused. “ _ I _ need you to be strong. We’re going to get home and figure this out, okay?” 

The two men stared at each other for a few moments longer, before a soft clearing of Sapnap’s throat drew their attention away.

“I really don’t mean to interrupt the love fest-” Sapnap said from a desk across the room- when did he even get up? “-but I think I might’ve figured out how to get into the computers.” The man in white beckoned his friends over, smiling and shaking his head as he watched the two pull apart from each other. Dream allowed himself a soft smile when he saw how red the back of George’s neck and the tips of his ears were as he walked in front of the blonde to reach Sapnap.

“What did you find?” Dream asked, leaning over George (definitely  _ not _ to press himself against the smaller man’s back) to catch a glimpse of what Sapnap was holding.

“Boom. Keycard.” Sapnap said proudly, showing off the dusty card that he’d pulled from the bottom of the desk drawer. “There’s a swipe thing on all of the computers, maybe this card matches one of them and can get us in.” George smiled widely.

“Sapnap you big brain, you!!” George said excitedly, ruffling Sapnap’s dark hair as the other man laughed. Dream grinned as well- this was the biggest breakthrough they’d had all week. The three might as well have sprinted over to one of the computers lining the wall, and held their breaths. Sapnap reached out with a shaking hand to swipe the card and Dream crossed his fingers. If the card didn’t work, they’d be right back where they started.

After a tense moment of silence, a small  _ beep _ sounded from the computer as it slowly booted up. The trio let out loud cheers as a welcome screen greeted their eyes. It was like the biggest weight was lifted from Dream’s shoulders-  _ finally _ , they had done something right. They were going to get home, and everything would be fine. Loud footsteps were heard running down the hallway as Wilbur and Tommy ran into the room, eyes wide from fear.

“What’s going on? Who’s hurt?” Wilbur asked, voice high with panic. 

“Hey guys, it’s okay no one is hurt.” Dream said with a smile on his face. “You’re never gonna believe this, but-”

“Sapnap figured out how to get us into the computer!” George exclaimed, dancing around happily. The man in question just scratched his neck with a nervous smile.

“Once I found that card it kind of just clicked.” He said anxiously. Dream could see why he’d be nervous- Tommy had very little trust in him, and frankly, the three of them didn’t have much trust in Tommy either…

But it made Dream kind of happy to see the smile on the brit’s face directed at Sapnap. It made things feel slightly more normal.

“God you guys scared the shit out of me.” Wilbur sighed, leaning up against the wall clutching his chest. Dream didn’t exactly feel 100% that Wilbur was innocent either, though he didn’t have much reason to suspect him because of his alibi. The suspicious looks he’d been giving George over the past two weeks were just making Dream more and more angry. There was no reason to distrust the man in cyan, so why did Wilbur so obviously have it out for him?

Maybe he was just trying to protect Tommy.

“Have you looked at any files or anything yet?” Tommy asked as he walked up next to George and leaned his elbow on the older man’s shoulder to look at the screen. Dream shifted uncomfortably at the contact- he hated the fact that he was so suspicious of Tommy and Wilbur, but what else was he supposed to think? Evidence was piling up against them, and he’d protect George- and Sapnap and Bad too, of course- with everything he had. Another pair of feet entering the room distracted Dream from his thoughts.

“Hey guys, what’s going on?” Bad questioned, standing in the doorway.

“Sapnap finally figured out how to get into the computer.” Wilbur said with a strained smile. Dream narrowed his eyes- what was Wilbur trying to say with that? Bad smiled brightly.

“Hey that’s awesome!” He exclaimed quickly before turning to Dream. “Hey Dream, could you come help Skeppy and I in Reactor? We need help with some of the wiring.” He asked kindly. Dream went to nod, but then looked over at George, who still had Tommy leaning over him.

‘ _ He’ll be okay, _ ” Dream thought.  _ ‘Sapnap and Wilbur are with him. They won’t let anything happen to George. _ ’ He reassured himself.

“Of course, lead the way.” Dream replied. “George, Sapnap, I’m going to help Bad and Skeppy fix some stuff in Reactor. Find out what you can and then fill me in later.” He called out, earning an ‘okay’ from Sapnap and a small smile from George that seemed to mean  _ ‘stay safe _ .’

Dream and Bad talked quietly as they walked through the halls to get to Reactor. They hadn’t seen much of each other since the murder- it was like everyone had taken sides, and there could be no intermingling. In all honesty, Bad hadn’t seemed to have chosen a side, which kind of hurt Dream’s feelings. Could the man seriously trust Tommy more than Sapnap? There was proof against both of their crewmates, but really it could’ve been anyone on board- Bad maybe even suspected that Dream was the killer.

“Soooo I see you and George have gotten pretty close, huh?” Bad teased, and laughed when Dream’s cheeks turned a bright pink.

“What do you mean? We’ve always been close.” He stuttered. “And I could say the same about you and Skeppy.” Dream retorted, though the damage had already been done. Bad tutted knowingly as the pair walked past the Medbay. Over his friend’s shoulder, the blonde could see the bright stars littering the sky- he’d spent so much time in admin the past few days that he’d almost forgotten how pretty the view was. Sure, it meant that they were stranded, but at the very least they were stranded somewhere prettier than the Nether.

“Dream, you are such a muffinhead.” Bad laughed.

“Wha- why?” 

“You  _ really _ can’t see it?” Dream stared blankly at the older man before him, who let out a groan. “Gosh, no wonder you still aren’t together! You’re  _ both  _ muffinheads.” Bad exclaimed, brushing dark hair off of his forehead.

“What are you even talking about?” Dream chuckled nervously as the two turned the corner to Reactor, not even attempting to look at the door to security. Bad had volunteered to clean the office out of nothing more than necessity- no one else would even go near the room, but someone had to clean up the… mess… eventually.

“George is very clearly head over heels for you, and I know for a fact that you feel the same.” Dream almost tripped over his own feet at the words, but distracted himself by returning the wave that Skeppy gave him from the other side of the room. George was most definitely not head over heels for him.

“You’re crazy, Bad.” Dream said, receiving a shrug from the other man, who skipped happily to Skeppy and wrapped the other man in a hug. “George could never love me like that.” He said, more too himself than to Bad as the other man grinned dopily at the purple suited adventurer.

“Hey Dream, thanks so much for coming to help us out.” Skeppy exclaimed as the blonde walked over to the pair. 

“It’s really no problem, I’m just as anxious to get this piece of shit working properly again as-”

“LANGUAGE!!” Bad yelled, punching Dream in the arm.

“-as anyone else on this ship.” Dream finished, rubbing his arm where Bad punched him honestly kind of hard. “Sorry.” Skeppy shot a look at the black suited man.

“Be nice.” Bad rolled his eyes.

“Yes dear.” Dream grinned at their interaction- how could Bad say  _ he _ was the blind one when him and Skeppy were basically married. Just a thought. 

Dream walked closer to the open fuse box, which was just filled to the brim with tangled and severed wires that looked to be in even worse shape than the ones he’d been working on in Admin during breaks.

“Jesus,” he said, sticking his fingers in to move things around a bit and assess the damage. “it looks like a spider got in here and chewed through them.” The blonde started to slowly separate the wires from each other the best he could. “Skeppy, is there a chance that you could go grab me some extra wires and the colored insulators from storage?” He asked without turning around. 

“No problem.” Skeppy replied. Dream missed the uneasy smile that the man shot to Bad before exiting the room. 

Dream continued to work in silence, aware of Bad trying to go through the fuse box on the other side of the room. It was comfortable- it felt like old times at the base trying to learn how redstone worked. After a few minutes of work, the man in green took notice of the silence on the other side of the room, and turned around to see his friend looking at the reactor almost blankly, tears obviously dripping from his eyes. Dream quickly walked over to him, wrapping a comforting arm around Bad’s shoulder as the other proceeded to start to sob into his neck. He didn’t need to ask what was wrong.

“I miss Tubbo, Dream.” Bad croaked out, the other man staying silent in an attempt to listen. “I-I barely even knew him, but he was so young, he was so  _ good _ .” Dream tried and failed to fight back his own tears, which stung his eyes. He tried to stop the memories from taking over him. He tried not to think about what he  _ saw _ .

“I-” Dream swallowed roughly. “I know, Bad. I know. I miss him too.” Was all he could say without facing the very real possibility that he might pass out if he closed his eyes and saw the gore materialized in his brain.

“Guys?” A voice from behind them called- it was Skeppy with the supplies he’d asked for. He approached the pair with concern in his eyes. “What’s going on?” 

“We’re talking about Tubbo.” Bad whispered, reaching up an arm to wipe the tears from his cheeks. Skeppy’s look turned somber.

“I’ve been trying so hard not to think about it.” The man in purple said. “I can’t imagine how bad it must’ve been for you two. I mean, Dream, you were the second person to see him after Sapnap. And, and Bad, you cleaned up security after he was gone.” Dream squeezed his eyes closed- he really didn’t want to think about that.

Bad seemed to sense Dream’s discomfort. Was he shaking? He felt like he was shaking. And breathing hard. Was he usually so lightheaded? “Skep, maybe we should just keep working on the wiring-”

“I think we should talk about it. I mean Bad you and I never really got to get our feelings out in the first place.” Skeppy continued. Dream felt nauseous, flashes of Tubbo’s face showing up behind his eyelids. 

“ _ Skeppy- _ ” Bad said, changing his positioning so that he was basically holding Dream up. 

“It was just brutal-” The brunette continued, ignoring Bad. “the way his head was smashed in, and god, his  _ eye _ .”

Dream remembered Tubbo’s eye hanging down his face- that was the most vivid memory he had, the one that haunted his nightmares. The metal object that was sticking out of the eye socket also made frequent appearances- was it a knife? Maybe a wrench, or a scalpel? Dream didn’t know, he was too busy trying not to throw up or pass out-

Why was the room going dark?

Dream felt himself slip to the ground, his fall softened by something. 

‘ _ Probably Bad _ ,” he thought in his loopy state.  _ ‘Bad always looks out for me. I miss George. _ ” It sounded far away, but as the blackness took over and his thoughts of Tubbo faded into nothingness, he swore he heard a voice calling out “Go get George!” 

_ Mmm _ , George made him feel all gooey inside.

George would take care of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. That’s literally all I can say to the incredible support this story has gotten. I’ve now prewritten to chapter seven, and I’m so excited for everyone to see what happens. I don’t think I’ve ever finished a multi-chapter fic before, but this time I’m gonna do it. I’m so excited and motivated for this work and your support has helped with that so much <3


	5. Meltdown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, a big thanks to my beta @villerdotpng on tumblr <3

Dream awoke, once again, on a hard metal table. On top of remembering hardly anything that had led up to his fainting, his head throbbed, and he just generally felt like shit. How did this kind of thing keep happening to him?

The blonde sat up and looked around the room- yup, this was still real life. The Medbay looked exactly the same as it had last time he was there, which hopefully meant that he hadn’t been passed out for too long. There were still empty medical carts, sterile looking test tube racks, and-

The green suited hero grinned. 

A sleeping George in a chair nearby.

“Oh Geoooorge~” Dream called, trying to wake up the other man as gently as possible.

“ _ Dream _ ?” George’s groggy voice filled the green-suited man’s ears. As he grew more aware, he seemed to realize what exactly was happening. “Dream!” He exclaimed, and as the blonde began to laugh the brit hopped quickly to his feet and ran to jump onto Dream’s bed, wrapping his arms tightly around the taller man. “You’re never allowed to scare me like that again, got it?” George said into Dream’s shoulder, voice slightly shaking.

The adventurer returned the hug.

“I promise, I’ll never scare you again, Gogy.” He joked. George pulled back and hit Dream with an intense look.

“I’m serious. When Bad ran in and said that there was something wrong with you, I-I thought-” George’s voice cracked and he looked away; Dream felt his heart break.

“Hey, hey no- I’m okay, I promise-” Dream gently grabbed George’s chin so that he could meet those beautiful brown eyes again. “I’m not going anywhere.” The older man nodded silently, and let Dream pull him back into a gentle hug. The green suited hero brought up a hand to play carefully with the soft brown locks before him, enjoying the warmth of George pressed up against him and the feeling of his heartbeat.

It was peaceful for a few minutes as they both just enjoyed their closeness, before George finally opened his mouth again. “This has been the longest two days of my life.” 

Dream’s hand paused in its movement.

“I was passed out for two days?” He asked, surprise evident in his tone. The brunette pulled out of the hug, a gentle pink dusting the high points of his face. He stood up and readjusted his clothes before answering.

“A  _ very _ tense two days.” George said, putting out a hand for Dream to grab and help him get to his feet, which was gladly taken. “Come on, I can’t wait to prove to everyone else that Skeppy and Bad didn’t poison you.” He said, pulling the younger along behind him towards the cafeteria.

“Did anyone actually think that?” Dream asked.

“Sapnap and Tommy did…” George took a moment to think as they entered the cafeteria together, hand in hand. “I think I did too.” He said, and then everyone else was upon them, pulling the two apart to make sure that Dream was  _ actually  _ okay.

“God I’m so glad you’re alright!” Sapnap fretted, seeming almost on the verge of tears. Happy tears, that was.

“You are SUCH A MUFFIN!” Bad cried, wrapping the younger in a hug. “I told Skeppy to stop talking, but he wouldn’t listen and-”

“Bad, Sappitus Nappitus, I am okay. I guess I just can’t think about... it.” Dream said, fighting playfully against the tight hug he was enveloped in.

“That’s some nasty PTSD you got there.” Wilbur said, stepping up to the man in green. “I’m really glad you’re okay, we were all so worried about you.” Dream gave him a soft smile in response. 

Skeppy stepped forward, distraught written all over his features,

“Dream, I can’t tell you how sorry I am. Bad was telling me to shut my stupid mouth but I didn’t  _ listen _ .” He said. “You looked like hell but I didn’t think you would pass out over it-” 

“Hey-” Dream interrupted. “No hard feelings, you couldn’t have known.” Skeppy seemed to accept that response, and faded into the background as Tommy’s voice rang out.

“God, can’t leave you alone for a second, can we Dream?” He laughed, and Dream returned the laugh as best as he could, trying not to let his suspicion of the younger blonde be known. He felt bad about suspecting Tommy, he really did. But something about how he reacted to Tubbo’s death just felt… weird. Wilbur’s too, for that matter. But he’d had enough of thinking about his friend’s death just then.

“I promise I’m fine, I really just want to hear about anything new that’s happened since I passed out.” Dream insisted, looking around the Cafeteria to see if there was anything interesting that had changed. Unsurprisingly, there was not.

“Honestly not much. Just George sitting by your bedside while the rest of us continued fixing the ship.” Wilbur said. George looked hurt, which was an emotion that, in Dream’s opinion, he should never be feeling.

“I asked you if you wanted me to help-” He defended himself, but the blonde cut in.

“Wilbur can you stop pointing the finger at George? He hasn’t done anything.” Dream said, a little bit of coldness seeping into his tone. Wilbur looked a little taken aback at the man in green’s defensiveness, but quickly covered it up.

“All I’m saying is that he was with you while we made repairs, that’s it.” Wilbur said, casually raising his hands in surrender. Dream opened his mouth to snap something back, but was promptly interrupted, which was probably a good thing. He knew that he would throw hands with Wilbur with no hesitation if it meant protecting the brit.

“Hey why don’t we maybe cool down a bit?” Bad suggested, getting between the two men. “We still have a lot of work to get done, yeah?” Bad turned to George. “Why don’t you and Dream go work on the wiring and downloads in electrical?” he suggested. The brunette nodded quickly, obviously ready to leave yet another tense situation. 

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.” George said, looking to Dream for his answer. The blonde crossed his arms over his chest, shooting a dirty look at Wilbur. The man in red subsequently ignored it in favor of picking at a pimple on the side of Tommy’s face. 

“Fine.” He said, and turned on his heel to walk down the hallway that would take them past admin and through storage. In the back of his mind he heard Bad suggesting tasks for others as well, but Dream didn’t really care about what the others were doing. He was sick of the cloud of unease that hung over them all- they used to be such good friends, and now all they did was argue and point fingers.

For good reason, but still. He wanted nothing more than a little bit of normalcy- wasn’t it enough that they were trapped in space under mysterious circumstances? Why did they have to be dealing with murder too? Dream’s mind was racing a mile a minute before the smaller man’s voice brought him out of his head.

“Hey, thanks for that back there.” George said, jogging to keep up with his long strides. Dream cast him a sideways glance and continued forward into storage.

“Wilbur just makes me so mad sometimes.” Dream wiped a hand over his face in annoyance. “It’s like he  _ wants _ it to have been you. I don’t know what his deal is.” George stayed silent as they rounded the corner into Electrical, careful to avoid looking at the flakes of crusted blood on the wall and floor. Skeppy and Bad had attempted to clean it up, but there was no way they’d be able to get it all out of every crack and crevice. Still, it was manageable to be in the room now. With it. It was easier to ignore.

“So anyway, what do we need to do?” George asked, inspecting some of the switch cases. Dream walked up to the fuse box to inspect the damage. When he opened the door, he frowned.

“This is even worse than the wiring in the Reactor.” He pointed out, George coming to look over his shoulder. “I don’t know how the lights and electronics are  _ working _ right now with everything so fucked up.” Dream took his hands out of the fuse box. “I’ll have to go get some of the spare wires and casings from storage. Hopefully there are some left.” He wiped his greasy hands on his pants. 

“I’m gonna see if I can fix this diverter and start the file downloads.” George replied, walking to the other side of the room. “I can’t believe whoever the person running this stupid experiment is left us with a broken down ship.” He grumbled. Honestly, Dream had almost forgotten about the whole experiment thing- figuring that whole deal out didn’t seem half as important as finding out who’d killed their friend, but it was still a big mystery that needed solving.

It could wait until they were safe back on Earth. 

Dream left Electrical with a knot of anxiety in his stomach- he didn’t like the idea of leaving George alone there when he didn’t know where the others were. Maybe he should’ve listened when Bad was assigning roles. If he came back in there and saw his best friend dead on the ground… 

‘ _ No _ ,’ he decided as he approached the crates and attempted to peer inside of an already open one. ‘ _ George can take care of himself _ .’ The whole being overprotective of George thing would have to stop soon. Dream knew that sometime in the near future George would stop finding it endearing, and it would start to drive him away. The brit was independent to a fault.

Dream just wanted to protect him.

Going through the crates was slow work. The blonde reached up a hand to wipe the sweat from his brow as he dug through endless machine parts and gasoline canisters for about fifteen minutes straight. He reached in to move a particularly large… something, but pulled his hand out quickly due to a sharp pain.

“Ow-” He hissed, cutting a gash down his forearm on a sharp piece of metal, blood dripping down his forearm to his hand, where he held it over his pants to drip instead of making a mess of the floor. “Fucking dammit.” He sighed, more annoyed by the blood than the pain of the fairly deep laceration. He got back to work digging through the next crate, albeit more carefully this time. He wondered how Skeppy could’ve found the spare wires so fast when they were in Reactor trying to fix the fuse box.

Suddenly, the sound of a blaring alarm made Dream jump. A red light began flashing, and Dream got to his feet in confusion, covering his ears, crate and arm forgotten. He saw Bad come quickly down the hallway that led to Admin and the Cafeteria, a terrified look on his face as he approached. A robotic female voice came over the ship’s loudspeakers. “ _ Reactor meltdown in… five… minutes _ .” The man in green swore he felt his heart stop.

“What the hell does that mean?” He yelled to Bad, who looked on the verge of panic.

“It means exactly what it just said, you muffinhead!” He exclaimed as he grabbed Dream’s hand and basically pulled him down the hall to electrical, where George had just emerged.

“Come on!” Dream yelled to George, motioning for the older to follow them to the reactor, and George complied without argument. The flashing of the alert lights warped the walls of the ship, making them feel so much more foreboding than they had before. 

When the trio finally reached the reactor, there was a strong feeling of panic in the room already.

“How do we fix it?” Wilbur asked, running from one side of the room to the other in an attempt to find some way-  _ any _ way to make the rector stop whatever the fuck was wrong with it from happening. 

“ _ Reactor meltdown in… four… minutes.” _ The voice came back over the speaker.

“Dream, you’ve been working on the wiring in here, right? What do we do?” Tommy almost pleaded, his face white with panic. 

“I-I don’t know!” The blonde replied, jogging over to look at the blinking lights over the fuseboxes. There must’ve been something they could do to fix it- 

Dream looked to his left, and noticed something he hadn’t seen before. There was a hand scanner mounted on the wall. He went to it immediately, trying his hardest to read the text that was printed over the scanner itself, which was partially rubbed away.

“George!” He yelled, calling the older over as his heart pounded in his chest. The brunette came to his side just as the speaker announced that they were down to three minutes. “Can you read that?” After a tense moment, George nodded, then spoke, all ears in the room straining to hear him over the alarm.

“Place one hand on each scanner in the event of a meltdown to reset the Reactor.” George read, and everyone else in the room jumped back into action.

“Where is the other scanner?” Bad asked, eyes scanning every wall. Wilbur and Tommy went behind the reactor, trying to find the other hand print with no luck.

“ _ Reactor meltdown in… two… minutes _ .” 

“We have to find it!” Wilbur yelled again. At that moment, Dream noticed Sapnap come into the room, panting. The blonde didn’t care about how weird it was that Sapnap was there so long after everyone else- he only needed to know if his friend knew where the other scanner was. Fortunately, he didn’t even have to ask.

“It’s behind the other fusebox!” Bad discovered, running over to the open box on the right side of the room, flipping the door that was covering the scanner closed. Dream immediately put his hand on the scanner closest to him, as Bad put his hand on the other. 

“ _ Total Reactor meltdown in… one… minute. Please evacuate the ship. _ ” The voice said.

It took a tense ten seconds for the scanners on both sides to turn blue, and for the reactor to stop rumbling. Silence filled the room as the alarm stopped going off. Everyone let out a hard breath. Tommy even started laughing as a byproduct of the stress.

“Fuck-” Wilbur started, relief evident in his features.

“Language!” Bad interrupted, though he too had a contented smile on his face. Dream felt like he just ran a marathon as he looked over at George, the other man meeting his eyes, before looking up.

“That is definitely not what I thought was going to happen today.” The brit huffed, eyes trained on the ceiling. Dream giggled- actually  _ giggled _ \- at the confession.

“Me neither.” He said.

“Dream, what happened to your arm?” A voice said. Green eyes immediately shot open and down to his arm that he’d forgotten was cut. There was blood all over his suit, soaking through and staining the fabric. Sapnap was standing over him, looking concerned.

“Oh, I was digging through crates in storage and I cut my arm on some metal thing. No biggie.” Dream said casually, ignoring the sting as he stretched his injured arm over his head. 

“You need to stop getting hurt.” George said whilst he took Dream’s arm in his hand, rolled up his sleeve, and assessed the damage. He couldn’t see the bone at least.

“George, I promise I’m okay…” He said, trying to fight back the blush starting to stain his skin. George ran gentle fingers down the side of the laceration, and retracted them when he slightly flinched at a prick of pain, whispering an apology. Wilbur, Bad and Tommy approached the three, curious about Dream’s injury.

“You’re a walking disaster, man.” Tommy said, a smirk on his face. Dream frowned at that. 

“Hey come on, he just saved our butts. Maybe we should be a little nicer?” Bad reasoned, getting to his knees beside his injured friend. “We’ll get you stitched and bandaged up in no time.” He said with a warm smile. Dream returned it easily.

“Why the hell did the reactor melt down and give me a heart attack?” Sapnap asked, chest still heaving from running.

“Where even were you?” Tommy asked, voice dripping in suspicion.

“I was clearing out the filters in O2 when the alarm went off- it took me a few minutes to run across the whole damn ship.” Sapnap defended. “Besides, it seems like you didn’t need me anyway. All of you seem to have held down the ship pretty well.” He said, Wilbur nodding in agreement.

“It still would’ve been nice to have the help.” Tommy grumbled, crossing his arms. More conversation flowed between the group as Sapnap and Bad went to get a first aid kit from the medbay so they could fix their hurt friend up without him needing to stand.

“Hey wait, has anyone seen Skeppy?” Wilbur asked suddenly. Dream’s blood went cold. Not again- 

“I haven’t seen him since we were all in the Cafeteria.” George said. Bad got to his feet and immediately walked to the door.

“Neither have I. We need to go find him,  _ now _ .” Bad said, and Dream had never heard him sound so terrified. Everyone followed the man, and had to jog to keep up with him as his stride was so fast. 

“Where did you assign him to go?” Dream asked, catching up with Bad. Despite the blood loss making him a little dizzy, Dream wanted to be at the front of the pack. If they were to see another murder—which he was  _ praying _ there wasn’t—he didn’t want anyone else to have to see it first. He wanted to protect them.

“I asked him to go to shields to make sure that they were still fully active.” He replied, eyes trained on the hallway in front of him. The group travelled through the ship slowly- at least it felt like that to Dream. He was just dreading what they’d find when they passed comms-

And then, suddenly, they were there.

They passed comms, Bad by his side, and rounded the corner by the railing.

Bad let out a blood-curdling scream.

Dream saw the gore on the floor.

And to be honest, he almost passed out all over again.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys just WAIT until the next chapter. I’m sorry for the cliffhanger, but I promise it’ll be worth the wait.
> 
> Can we talk about Dream’s sub 20 run yesterday?!? I’m so proud of him, like, Wowie. Anywayyyy I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, and I’m very excited to read your theories!! I struggled a lot on this chapter, and for some reason I was very unmotivated to write it, so I’m sorry if that comes through at all. I just finished chapter eight this morning though!! I love you all very much<3


	6. Pointing Fingers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The biggest of thank yous to my wonderful beta @villerdotpng on Tumblr!!!

Dream was absolutely frozen from shock. How could he let it happen  _ again _ ? He was so busy keeping George safe that he forgot that others were at risk too-

And Skeppy had obviously paid the price for it. 

Dream turned around almost as soon as he saw the body. To him, it felt like a much better idea to face everyone behind him while simultaneously try to tune out Bad’s screams and push down the bile that was threatening to come up from his stomach. The four men in front of him had their eyes trained on his face, asking for information. Dream opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it. What the fuck was he supposed to say? They all knew what was behind that wall. They all knew why Bad was sobbing and begging Skeppy to come back.

They knew he was dead, every single one of them. 

But Dream might as well confirm it.

“Blood.” He said, his heart rate maxing out yet again. “A-a  _ lot _ of blood.” He leaned against the wall next to him, vision swimming. George and Sapnap ran to his side as Wilbur and Tommy continued past him and around the corner to see what the hell had happened to Skeppy.

“Hey, take a seat okay?” Sapnap said gently. “We don’t want you passed out again.” Dream nodded silently and allowed his back to slide down the wall until he was on the floor, his two closest friends on either side of him.

“I can’t believe I let it happen again.” Dream quietly said, bringing his knees to his chest and hugging them close. “I’m supposed to protect you guys-”

“This isn’t your fault,” George tried to soothe, though that was a hard job when Dream also had to listen to sounds of retching and screaming from just around the corner. “You couldn’t have known that this would happen.”

“But I should have, George. I  _ really _ should have.” Tears started building in the back of his eyes, but the blonde refused to let them fall. He had to be strong. He put his hands flat on the ground in an attempt to push himself back up to his feet, but Sapnap put a hand on his shoulder to guide him back down. “Let me up, Sap.” Dream said, tiredness seeping into his voice. He was tired of feeling useless.

“Dream if you go in there, you’re going to pass out again.” Sapnap tried, but his hand was just gently pushed away.

“I don’t like Wilbur and Tommy alone in there with Bad.” He stated simply, getting back to his feet. He squeezed his eyes closed until the dizziness wore off, and tried to fight back the memories of Tubbo.

“You think it was one of them?” George asked. There was no surprise in his tone, just acceptance with a hint of agreement. Dream nodded, and started to walk around the corner to once again take in the scene, Sapnap and George close behind him. 

The brit behind Dream let out a loud curse when he laid eyes on the scene, and the blonde could hear the breath catch in Sapnap’s throat. With every blink, the image behind Dream’s eyelids grew clearer and clearer. It was Tubbo, laying still in a pool of his own blood. But then when he opened them, it seemed like the same scene with a different man.

Bad was holding the body in his lap, Skeppy’s blood soaking his suit and turning the black ever so much darker than it had been before. While assessing the damage, Dream took note of a piece of flesh on the floor nearby-

He bit his cheek to stave off his scream when he realized that it was Skeppy’s tongue, which had been hacked brutally from within his mouth. Wilbur stood behind Bad, trying to convince the man in balck to let the body go so he could try to figure out what had happened, but was met with no response- only agonized wails from Bad.

“Did- is there a  _ smile _ carved into his face?” George asked, voice shaking. Dream looked closer, and brought a hand to cover his mouth, turning away when he realized that, yes, there fucking was. It was hard to make out because of the way the body was being held, but carved into Skeppy’s face was a smile, coming out of either corner of his mouth. The blood around it was congealing and crusting, making it look almost fake. 

Dream’s mind felt like it was going into overload, switching between the present and memories of two weeks ago. It felt like deja vu, but it couldn’t have been. It was real, it was all real. Skeppy’s body may not have been mutilated as far as Tubbo’s had been, but that didn’t make his death any less gruesome. It seemed to the blonde that he’d probably choked to death on his own blood- at least that’s how it seemed from the amount of it which pooled on the floor and puddled in the hallway. Some of the blood was even dripping into the vent nearby.

“Bad, take some deep breaths.” Sapnap said, walking slowly up to his panicking friend. Bad looked up at him, eyes puffy and red.

“Why would someone do this?” Bad asked. His voice broke on the last word, and he hugged Skeppy’s body closer, as if holding him longer would somehow bring him back to life. 

Dream felt empty again, but it was different this time. The gore wasn’t affecting him the same way as it had when Tubbo was murdered. Then, it was shock.

This time, he was angry, and the murderer would pay for what he’d done.

“Skeppy never hurt a soul, he would never do anything wrong.” Bad continued. He allowed Tommy and Wilbur to take the body from him with little resistance this time, his arms going limp and his posture sagging. Wilbur laid a hand on his shoulder in some kind of show of solidarity as he took the body of Bad’s beloved away from him. George and Dream approached, joining Sapnap at their friend’s side. “What did he do to deserve this?” He wept quietly, a harsh departure from how Tommy reacted at Tubbo’s death. Of course, they were extremely different people, and everyone grieves differently.

“He did nothing, Bad. And whoever did this is going to pay.” Dream replied, wrapping his broken friend in a tight hug.

“Did  _ I _ do something wrong?” He questioned, his whole body shaking like a leaf. “Did someone want to get back at me or something? I just- I, I don’t understand. I loved him, Dream.” The blonde just held him closer, tears squeezing out of his eyes. 

“I know you did, big guy. I know.” Dream pulled out of the hug a bit to look Bad in the eyes. “He loved you too.” The other couldn’t form words- he only nodded quickly and dissolved into yet another puddle of tears. Dream could feel Skeppy’s blood soaking into his suit, and he was hoping that it wouldn’t cause another flashback to Tubbo. They sat there in a huddle for a few minutes, none of the four having the strength to move. They all felt so weak.

“Bad, if you’re up to it we need to all meet in the Cafeteria. We’re getting to the bottom of it this time.” Wilbur’s voice made the group look up. 

“You, you didn’t-” Bad started, eyes wide and glassy.

“Of course not, not yet. We want you to be able to… say goodbye.” The brit replied, and Dream felt a tiny bit of tension leave Bad’s body. 

Dream stood up first, George and Sapnap stepping forward to help Bad walk instead of Dream- the shock was making him shaky, and they were more scared of Bad passing out than the blonde, rightfully so.

The walk to the Cafeteria was silent, save for Bad’s soft whimpers and sniffles. Tommy was waiting for the five when they arrived, already sitting at their usual table, tear tracks visible on his cheeks, but not a fresh tear in sight. All that was there was a furrowed brow and a set jaw. He didn’t speak until they’d all sat down. There was no silence.

“Sapnap, how about you save us some time and just admit that you killed them.” Tommy said, voice scarily calm. Dream opened his mouth to defend his friend, but the dark haired man didn’t need it.

“That’s fucking bullshit, Tommy.” Dream felt the absence of a “Language!” from Bad. He didn’t like where the conversation was going, though. Pointing fingers would get nothing done except have someone accused who wasn’t the murderer, and that would do nothing for them except put everyone else in danger.

“Tommy, you can’t just accuse. You need proof.” Dream said, trying to mediate. Tommy scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“You just don’t want to accept the truth because it’s your  _ best buddy Sapnap _ .” He mocked.

“Tommy, grow up.” George said, placing his hands on the table. “This is serious-”

“Stop attacking him!” Wilbur cut in, voice icy. “He’s probably right anyway-”

“Guys, please stop this.” Bad spoke up. Everyone quieted, mostly just out of respect for Bad. “I want to avenge Skeppy, but I want it done right. You’re all still my friends until proven guilty. And you’re friends with each other, too.” Dream had to push down his anger before replying.

“Okay, fair enough. If that’s what you want, Bad, we’ll do it.” Dream said. “But we need alibis. I think that’s a fair first step.”

“Well considering how confident you are that Sapnap isn’t the murderer, why don’t you give yours, Dream?” Tommy pressed, arms folded over his chest. Dream didn’t hesitate. He was no killer.

“Easy. I went to Electrical with George. We needed more wires and insulators, so I went to get some. The alarms started going off about twenty minutes after I came in, and Bad came down the hallway and saw me in there. On our way to Reactor we got George from Electrical.” Dream explained, keeping his voice steady. ‘ _ I have nothing to hide _ .’ he thought to himself.

“I think that’s bullshit.” Tommy replied. Dream sputtered, shocked.

“Why? That’s what happened, just ask Bad or George!” He couldn’t believe it. How the fuck could Tommy think he was lying? He probably had one of the most solid alibis in the whole damn group.

“Mostly that giant fucking cut on your arm. You really expect us to think that you, Dream, combat legend, would get a gash  _ that bad _ just from sifting through crates of spare parts?” The brit snorted. “There’s just no fucking way.” Tommy leaned forward, putting his weight onto his forearms so he would be closer to Dream across the table. “You got that wound from fighting with Skeppy before you fucking killed him. You cut out his tongue and carved his cheeks and made him choke to death on his own BLOOD. YOU SICK FUCK-” Tommy started to stand up, but Wilbur all but shoved him back into the seat.

“Tommy, we  _ talked  _ about this.” Wilbur said, trying to calm the younger down.

“Yeah, that’s not fucking true. Dream wouldn’t kill Skeppy, and everyone here knows that.” George defended.

“But do you  _ really _ have any proof to support that?” Tommy pressed again. George paused.

“Well, I mean-”

“His blood was on the crate where he cut himself.” Bad interjected, obviously trying to keep his emotions in check. “I, I saw it when we were all walking back through there on our way to, you know.” He finished quietly. Dream felt a wave of relief wash over him.

“Yeah, fine. Okay.” Tommy relented.

“It’s your turn then. Where were you, Tommy?” George shot back, anger tangible in his voice. The brit reached his hand over and gave Dream’s a squeeze as a sign of support, which was greatly appreciated. Dream wanted to pay close attention to Tommy’s alibi; there was something not right with him.

“What? You can’t seriously think it was me-”

“Just answer the damn. question.” Dream said coldly, taking proud note of the hard swallow Tommy did at his tone.

“Fine. I was in weapons taking stock for like ten minutes, just as Bad told me. Then I got a weird feeling and went to find Wilbur. We were together in the upper engine until the reactor started melting down, and we were the first ones to get into the room.” He said. 

“Weapons is pretty close to shields, I’d say.” Sapnap pointed out. Dream wanted to hit his head against the table.

“Oxygen is much, much closer.” Wilbur stated. “Plus, you were so much later getting to the Reactor, and you were so out of breath-”

“I was running!”

“-Everyone else has an alibi that actually makes  _ sense _ except for you, Sapnap. On top of how you found Tubbo and were covered in blood, and how you were going off on your own after you first woke up, I can’t even believe that Dream and George are defending you.” Wilbur finished, looking way too content with himself. Sapnap looked on the verge of tears.

“It wasn’t me.” He stated weakly, hands visibly shaking. Tommy rolled his eyes.

“Wow what a great alibi, you’re right Sapnap, there’s no way it could be you after that rousing defense.” He bit sarcastically.

“Are we just going to forget that Wilbur wanted to throw Tubbo’s body out without a proper goodbye?” George tried to defend.

“Or that he was one of the first people out of their comas?” Dream added. “I bet Skeppy was teamed up with Wilbur from the beginning, but wanted out of it. So you killed him just to make sure your secret didn’t get out.”

“That’s the most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard!” Wilbur laughed, on a roll. ”I’ve been nowhere near any of the murders, and I’ve always been with someone. Maybe it’s Bad-” Wilbur snapped his mouth closed. Everyone stared at him in shock. 

“What the fuck, man.” Sapnap said. Bad wiped the tears from his cheeks with the back of his hand.

“No, he’s right. I should give my alibi.” He took a shaky breath. “I was in admin, going through that computer Sapnap unlocked a few days ago after Skeppy told me he didn’t need help in shields. I wanted to see if there was anything we had missed about the Experiment, but I found nothing. I came running out when I heard the alarms for the meltdown, and found Dream. He explained the rest.” Just speaking that much seemed to exhaust the dark haired man. He looked absolutely shattered.

“We aren’t leaving this table until we decide who we’re sending out-” Tommy started, but Dream held his hands out.

“Hold on, hold on. Sending out? As in, into space?” He asked. Wilbur nodded. 

“That’s the best way. We can’t keep a killer on this ship.” 

“Were you just not going to ask me about this-” Tommy cut Dream off.

“Why should we ask you? You aren’t the supreme leader around here.” Maybe Dream was just up his own ass, but he knew he very much was the leader, and Wilbur wanted to take that from him. The blonde clenched his fist.

“Look, we need to have a vote.” George spoke up. “I agree that sending out whoever the killer is will be the best course of action.” Dream was shocked.

“But, we’re all supposed to be friends-”

“We can all be friends again when we’re safe.” Wilbur stated, earning a sharp nod from Tommy. Dream stopped arguing- it wasn’t worth it. Arguing the inevitable would just make him look more guilty than he already did. “Alright, let’s make this simple.” His eyes gazed around at them all. “Raise your hand if you think it was Tommy.” George’s and Dream’s hands both shot up immediately. It didn’t go unnoticed by Dream that Bad’s hand remained down. “Who thinks it was Sapnap.” Tommy and Wilbur’s hands went up immediately, followed by Bad’s, with hesitation.

“Bad?” Dream and George said just about simultaneously. The man in green immediately angled his body protectively in front of Sapnap the best he could. This wasn’t happening.

“Bad?” Sapnap asked, face going pale.

“I-I’m sorry Sapnap. But you make the most sense. I don’t want it to be you, but I have to go along with what has the most evidence.” He explained quietly. Sapnap got up from his seat, followed by everyone else.

“This, this is  _ bullshit _ .” Sapnap said, slowly backing away from Tommy and Wilbur. “I would never hurt Tubbo or Skeppy-”

“You guys are fucking insane.” Dream said, running to protect Sapnap. His eyes shot to Bad. “How could you do this? We’ve been friends most of our lives-”

“I’m so sorry.” He said.

Tommy and Wilbur approached Dream, who now had George by his side, fists poised to fight.

“Move, guys. We’ve voted.” Wilbur asked as kindly as he could. Sapnap was pressed up against the wall behind George, hyperventilating. When Dream and George didn’t move, they were shoved out of the way. Tommy grabbed one of Sapnap’s arms while Wilbur grabbed the other. Immediately, the brunette started thrashing around, trying to get free.

“It wasn’t me! It wasn’t me,  _ please _ -” Sapnap begged as he was dragged down the hallway. Dream rushed to help him because  _ god _ he didn’t want one of his best friends sent off into space. He just  _ knew _ it was Tommy. He was so sure of it that he could feel it in his whole body. But then there was a hand on his shoulder. It was Bad.

“Dream, I don’t want to accept it either. But this is the only way the rest of us can make it back to Earth safely…” He looked right in Dream’s green eyes. “I can’t lose another person I love.”

“But don’t you love Sapnap?” George cut in. Bad answered with a new wave of tears falling from his eyes- that was enough. The trio started following the sounds of Sapnap’s pleading to the airlock, where Wilbur and Tommy threw him in unceremoniously along with what remained of Skeppy. He stood up slowly, tears trickling from his eyes. He walked up to the window, not looking at Skeppy’s body which lay limply on the ground. Tommy walked up to the window sporting a smile that Dream wanted to punch off of his stupid face.

“This is what you get for killing Tubbo, you sick motherfucker.” He said, spitting on the floor in front of the door and walking to Wilbur’s stoic side. George just about had to hold the older blonde back from beating Tommy to a pulp.

“Dream, George, please…” Sapnap begged, voice muffled by the glass. “I don’t want to die like this, please....” Dream’s heart was already broken, and as awful as it was for him to do, he looked away from his old friend and turned to George, wrapping the smaller man in a hug. He needed some comfort, as selfish as it was. There was nothing he could do. 

_ Dream was powerless. _

Bad stepped up to the glass, looking down at Skeppy’s body, trying to avoid Sapnap asking him why the older would vote for him to die.

“I love you, Skeppy. So much… I don’t know what I’m going to do without you. You were my everything, and I’ll regret not telling you that for the rest of my life. I will avenge you.” He looked up at Sapnap just then. Dream couldn’t see his eyes, but he could imagine the sadness that filled them. “I love you too, Sapnap… and I am  _ so, so sorry _ .” Bad stepped away from the glass again, and allowed himself to be enveloped in George and Dream’s hug. Suddenly, the mood in the airlock changed. 

“YOU’RE A LIAR!” Sapnap started pounding on the glass, screaming bloody murder. Wilbur had his hand on the release switch, and Dream looked up to meet his eyes. They were filled with regret and sadness.

“IT WAS TOMMY!!” Sapnap screamed hysterically, fists pounding against the door to the airlock. “TOMMY KILLED TUBBO AND SKEPPY! HE FUCKING MURDERED THEM!!” He graduated from pounding on the glass to straight up punching it, skin on his knuckles splitting open so his blood would splatter onto the glass.

“Sapnap, don’t make this harder-” Wilbur yelled, but was ignored.

“DREAM, HOW COULD YOU LET THEM KILL ME? HOW CAN YOU JUST  _ STAND THERE?!? _ ” He screeched. Every word was a dagger in the blonde’s heart. “I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU, AND GEORGE AND BAD.  **I HATE YOU!** ” 

Those were the last words Dream ever got to hear from one of his longest friends. 

One of the people he was closest to. Who knew all of his secrets, all of his inside jokes, and all of his insecurities.

Wilbur opened the airlock, and Skeppy’s body was sucked out, followed suit by Sapnap’s. 

They were just gone, in the blink of an eye.

He didn’t even have a helmet on.

Everyone started to slowly trickle away, until only George and Dream remained.

“He said he hated us, Dream.” George said, emotionless. The blonde felt empty as he stared at the blood on the thick glass. Sapnap and him were just as close as he was with George. He felt like a piece of him was gone. And hearing Sapnap say that he hated him?

Dream would never recover from it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m so sorry lol. As always, your theories are very much encouraged and appreciated!!!
> 
> So I need to ask for you guys’ opinions on something. When I originally planned this story out, I wasn’t going to have a sequel, but now I’m thinking one might be necessary for pacing purposes. The problem with that is that I’m TERRIFIED of starting a sequel and not finishing it. So basically my options are to speed the pacing up at the end and put the parts of the story that happen on earth in this book, or make a sequel that’s better paced that’s on Earth, but risk not finishing it. I’d try EXTREMELY hard to get it done, but I honestly couldn’t make any promises. I love you guys, and I would really appreciate your input.
> 
> In other news, I’m now working on the chapter with the killer reveal!!! I’m so excited, and I hope it’s satisfying hehe. Much love <3


	7. Reminiscing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, a thank you to my lovely beta @villerdotpng on tumblr <3

Dream didn’t understand how Wilbur and Tommy seemed to just go back to normal in the weeks following Skeppy’s death and Sapnap’s banishment. That’s what they’d begin to refer to it as, anyway-

The banishment. It sounded just as awful as it actually was.

It was like nothing had changed for them. They had started laughing again, and joking around after only like two weeks, where it had taken Dream far longer to go a day without crying- it was like they didn’t even  _ want _ to get home anymore. They were happy again. But that was the thing; could Dream really blame them? They obviously felt safe again now that Sapnap was gone, so by their logic, what was the point in worrying? Maybe Dream was just jealous of their comfort and happiness, even though one of them probably  _ was _ a cold blooded killer

Dream and George had almost isolated themselves from the others, with the exception of Bad. By the time they only had maybe three weeks left in their journey, almost all of the repairs were made, and it became a waiting game until they reached Earth once again. It was the longest wait of the blonde’s life. He was constantly paranoid and almost sickly from the stress of knowing that the killer was still onboard. Dream didn’t even like sleeping in his bed anymore out of fear that Tommy or Wilbur would murder George in his sleep, so he stayed up as long as he could until George or Bad forced him to sleep, or he just passed out. He felt like he couldn’t leave the brit unprotected though—not when Tommy and Wilbur were around.

Another reason for his insomnia was the flashbacks. They weren’t always while he was asleep- sometimes back right when the murders had happened originally he’d be mid conversation with George or Bad and his mind would just be overtaken, and he’d end up having a panic attack on the floor. But, as everything was, the visions were worse when he slept. Usually it was Tubbo laying on the ground of Security with his brains scattered across the floor, but sometimes it was Skeppy, blank eyes not matching the artificially carved smile which decorated his face. 

The worst though was Sapnap. Sometimes in Dream’s nightmares he would break through the glass and grab George, pulling him into the airlock. He always said the same thing, too:

“Live as one, die as one.”

And then they were sucked out into space, stars glittering in the background as their heads exploded—

“Dream, wake up!” The blonde was shaken awake by George, unsurprisingly. He was passed out in one of the captain’s chairs in Navigation.  _ Big shocker _ . Dream tried to slow his breathing as he rubbed his eyes roughly, then transitioned into a joint popping stretch. The stitches on his arm pulled a bit, but he didn’t mind the little pangs of pain in the limb. He felt George’s eyes on the little bit of skin that was revealed when his shirt rode up.

All of them had abandoned their blood stained suits so that they wouldn’t have to remember every time they looked down at themselves or saw their reflections in one of the many windows which littered the ship.

“How long was I out for?” He asked, running a hand through messy hair. George rolled his eyes with a smile. 

“In my opinion, not long enough. But maybe six hours?” The brunette guessed playfully.

“Aw what, do I annoy you or something?” Dream teased. It felt nice to mess around with George again, he’d missed their easy banter. It had started to reappear in the past week, and getting used to hearing the brit’s laughter once more gave him the slightest bit of  _ real _ happiness. 

“Nah it’s boring when you sleep.” George deflected, taking Dream’s hand and pulling the taller out of his chair. “What am I supposed to do, count your freckles? I get bored.” Dream barked out a laugh, pulling the smaller man closer. 

“What, you’re that obsessed with me that you count my freckles Gogy?” George blushed. They were kind of dancing a little bit, hands intertwined and bright smiles on their faces for what seemed like the first time in months.

“That’s not what I meant.” He defended himself. “I wouldn’t be so bored if you would just sleep at night with the rest of us.” Dream’s smile drooped a bit.

“You know I can’t.” Dream let go of George’s hands to just stand across from him, meeting his eyes. The brunette looked down sheepishly.

“I know, I know. The nightmares.” He said. Dream hadn’t exactly told George about how most of the reason he stayed up all night was because of him. Bad had figured it out on his own, and tried to talk Dream out of it. He even offered to take shifts staying up if it meant that the blonde would just get some sleep, but he declined. He didn’t want to put that on Bad, who had already lost Skeppy and had to have time to himself to grieve. Dream didn’t want to put more stress on the man’s shoulders.

“I don’t know why this has all affected me so badly… I’m  _ supposed _ to be strong.” Dream said, leading George out of Navigation to go to the Cafeteria for something to eat. “And I could’ve stopped them from throwing Sapnap out, but I didn’t, I just stood there.” He beat himself up.

“Look, Sapnap may be gone, but we’re going to get proof against Tommy, okay? If we can’t save him, we’ll avenge him.” George promised. Dream nodded and headed into the kitchen. 

“Speaking of Tommy, where is he, Wilbur, and Bad?” He asked, hopping up to sit on the counter. George walked to their supply cupboard and pulled out some bags of freeze-dried food to add water to.

“Umm I think they’re in admin. Bad might’ve left though.” The brunette shrugged, handing Dream a packet and climbing up to sit next to the taller on the countertop. Their thighs were pressed together and elbows bumping as they ate. Dream gently shoved George, and the brit did the same in return, a soft grin building on both of their faces.

If anything good was coming of their situation, it was the fact that at least Tommy and Wilbur were keeping to themselves. And because all of their tasks were done, Dream could spend more time with George and Bad. 

George had been kind of elusive sometimes, which honestly gave the blonde major anxiety. Whenever he woke up from an impromptu nap to Bad alone at his side instead of him and George, his stomach started hurting and his brain felt like it was shorting out from worry, but George was never too far away.

“I’m worried about Bad, honestly.” The brunette continued. “Skeppy was so important to him for so long, I don’t know if he’s ever going to be able to get over it.” 

“Agreed. I don’t want to be overbearing and say that he shouldn’t be alone with Wilbur and Tommy, either. He really seems to trust them now... I’m glad he spends so much time with us though.” Dream was quiet for a moment as he decided what he wanted to say next. “I just get worried about him being alone in the ship when, you know.” The two allowed a comfortable silence to wash over them.

“I really wish we knew for sure whether it was Tommy or if it was Wilbur.” George said. “Before this whole deal I was actually getting kind of close to them. I hate this stupid situation we’re in.”

“I have my money set on Tommy. Wilbur just seems like he’s protecting him. Plus, he really  _ hasn’t  _ been near either of the murders.” Dream mused, crumpling up the empty foil packet and tossing it across the room to land in the garbage can. 

“So you think Tommy hasn’t killed him yet because he’s his alibi?” George asked, trying to repeat Dream’s (epic) throw, but his ball landed a few feet short. He ignored Dream’s mockery with a smile as he got down from the countertop to throw the trash away properly.

“That, my Gogy, is  _ exactly _ what I’m saying. And on top of that, I don’t think he’s even going to kill anyone else because he has to know we’ll send him right out of this ship.” Dream swung his feet, letting his heels hit the base of the table and the toes of his boots dragged across the floor. “I think maybe we should spend more time with them, at least a little. If they know we’re still suspicious, it’ll make things more dangerous.” He said, and George nodded in agreement. The pair continued to mess around for a few minutes, talking about random things from before they were put on the ship. They were in the middle of a very heated conversation about Patches when another voice joined their own.

“Hey guys.” Bad said, entering the kitchen. Dream turned and ran to him, scooping him up in a hug. His good mood must’ve been contagious, because a rare smile broke out on the older’s face.

“Baaaaaaad you need to stay with us.” Dream said, holding him tightly, giving the biggest puppy-dog eyes he could muster. “You’re not allowed to leave, that’s now against the law. I miss you too much.” George was doubled over with laughter at the scene.

“Aww, Dream you flatter me.” He bantered back. Dream felt proud that he could give Bad a little bit of joy. He wanted nothing more than for his old friend to heal. “I’ve actually been spending a lot more time with Wilbur and Tommy.” The strength of Dream’s hug lessened. He’d been trying to forget about the whole  _ Bad betraying Sapnap _ thing. Every time he would get mad about it, he tried to put himself into Bad’s shoes. If someone had killed George and he really thought he was right about the identity of the killer, he wouldn’t care if it was a friend either. He’d do anything to avenge the man he loved.

“Yeah? And how’s that going?” George questioned. He sounded a little bitter in his tone, but Bad didn’t seem to notice. If he did, he chose to ignore it.

“I mean now that Sapnap is gone, they’re pretty much back to normal again. They’re just as happy as I am to be safe.” He said. “Look, I know you guys don’t really trust Tommy, and I know you think Sapnap was innocent, but I’m really confident that we banished the right person.” He tried to explain, noticing how upset his friends looked. “I miss him too, guys. And I really,  _ really _ wish we didn’t have to do it…” He took a deep breath to steady himself. “But I couldn’t let Skeppy’s killer get away with it.” Dream and George said nothing in response for a moment.

“If that’s what you think, big guy, then that’s what you think.” Dream finally replied, basically ending the conversation. He really just wanted to change the subject.

“Well let’s look at it this way-” George approached the pair. “We only have like, three weeks until we get back to Earth and can figure this all out.” He said brightly. The trio walked out of the kitchen and into the main cafeteria, where Wilbur was approaching them. The brunette smiled and offered a small wave.

“Hi guys.” He said. Dream and George really just looked at him without saying a word; George at least offered up a slight wave in return. 

“Hey Wilbur!” Bad said brightly. He looked between his three friends, obviously feeling the tension- unease was radiating off of Dream in waves. “Look, I know things have been tense for the past few weeks-” The blonde scoffed.  _ That _ was an understatement. “-but I really think that if we all made up it would make the next three weeks a lot more bearable for everyone.” Dream felt kind of bad about making Bad upset. The look on the older man’s face showed that he truly just wanted everyone to get along. George sighed next to him.

“Okay, okay. For you.” The brit agreed, and the excitement on Bad’s face was worth it. 

“Awesome. See, it won’t be so bad.” He said. “I think we all just need to forget for a bit. Pretend things are somewhat normal.” Dream nodded.

“You’re right.” He decided, then looked around. “Where’s Tommy?” Wilbur scratched the back of his neck.

“He’s sleeping. We spent the night doing the final repairs on the upper engine, and he basically passed out after.” He chuckled. Dream felt weird about being around Wilbur so casually, but he would do anything to keep that smile on Bad’s face. As long as George was safe, he was comfortable enough to be at least civil with his old friends. Wilbur motioned for the pair to join himself and Bad at the table they’d sat at. “Look, I know you guys really suspected Tommy, and might still suspect him, I don’t know. But, the reality now is that we’re here and we should try to make things as normal as they can be.” He said as the pair sat down. Dream bit the inside of his cheek.

“If you guys trust Tommy, Dream and I will too.” George spoke up. Dream said nothing to oppose. “And besides, we’ll be home soon. Who knows what the world will be like when we get back, if that guy on the recording was telling the truth, it might not be so good. We’ll need to be a team” 

“I almost forgot about that whole experiment thing, honestly.” Wilbur said, drumming his fingertips on the table. “So much awfulness has happened that the fact that the whole  _ world could be ending  _ doesn’t seem like such a big deal.” The blonde nodded in agreement.

“It kind of reminds me of like— ten years ago when we were kids and there were all those Pillager attacks.” Dream reminisced. “That’s how George and I met Sapnap, actually.” He noticed Wilbur tense at the mention of Sapnap’s name, but the green-eyed man ignored it. If he was going to be peaceful, he wasn’t going to pick fights. Plus, talking about Sapnap in such a positive way, while very painful, felt nice. Dream wanted to remember him for the good times, not the declarations of hatred which made it feel like his heart was being ripped from his chest whenever the memory popped up. “We were what, eleven?” He asked George.

“No,  _ you _ were eleven. I was thirteen, and a tactical genius.” George said proudly, puffing out his chest. Wilbur and Bad laughed. “We didn’t meet Sap until after, during the cleanup.”

“Um, I seem to remember you getting hit in the chest with an axe and having to take five minutes to respawn.” Dream pointed out, relishing in the sputtering and the redness that arose to George’s cheeks and neck. 

“George you let an eleven year old outlive you?” Bad giggled lightly. 

“I was trying to save him! He was trying to protect me, and he was like half my size. Absolutely not.” The brunette defended, but it was all in good fun.

“I think I remember all that, actually. I was still on my own, maybe fourteen?” Wilbur bit his bottom lip in thought. “My parents had been killed the year before, so I had been travelling from village to village. I stayed to fight alongside the other teenagers who lived there, and we just barely won.”

“I don’t even remember my life from when I was fifteen. It was generally just not a good time for me. “ Bad said softly. “I know I was village hopping until I met Dream, Sapnap, and George. That was when I was sixteen.” He recalled. “I met Skeppy when I was on a solo adventure when I was twenty one, and… yeah.” He trailed off. Wilbur put a comforting hand on his arm when he noticed the older was starting to tear up.

“Hey, remembering is good for us.” George said, a sad smile on his face.

“I know, you’re right.” Bad wiped his tears and took a deep breath. “Remembering the good times feels nice.”

“Remember last manhunt when-” 

“Dream, no. Last manhunt is not a good memory.” George joked.

“Aw come on, you’re just butthurt that I pushed you into all of those Wither skeletons.” Dream rebutted. George shoved him slightly with his shoulder, and while they bickered, they missed the knowing looks shared by Bad and Wilbur.

“I really miss my bed.” Dream decided. “And Patches. Even though she kind of smelled bad and always ate my food when I left it out.”

“I miss visiting you guys and finding my room all fucked up-” Wilbur said.

“Language!” George announced with a smile. Everyone shared a laugh, even Bad. “I miss coming back to our base after a long mining trip for  _ myself _ and then everyone taking my stuff.” He continued.

“Aww, and we appreciate it every time.” Dream ruffled the shorter man’s pretty brown hair with affection. 

“I miss eating food that isn’t powdered.” Bad said, and everyone spoke up in agreement.

“I miss all of my friends.” A voice said from the Medbay hallway. Dream tensed immediately, laugh dying in his throat. Tommy entered and sat down next to Wilbur, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He yawned before speaking again. “Are we reminiscing, boys?” He asked.

“Yeah, we were just talking about what we miss most from home.” George said. The younger blonde thought for a moment before speaking.

“I miss travelling the world and meeting random people and befriending them.” He decided, and Dream begrudgingly agreed with him. The green-eyed hero didn’t trust the teenager as far as he could throw him, but maybe if he kept up appearances and tried to be more friendly, at the very least everyone else on the ship could get back home safely. Then, him, George, and Bad could avoid him for the rest of their lives if they had to. That seemed like a good plan, and by the way George had started to casually converse with Tommy, he obviously had a similar idea. Why spend the rest of their time in space miserable? There was no possible way it could get any worse than it was.

Three of their friends were dead- two of them had been brutally murdered just a month ago. But somehow, the survivors were able to have a conversation about what they missed from home, and even laugh. If that wasn’t a testament to how brutal and bizarre their lives had been before their kidnapping, nothing was. No matter what happened to them, they would adapt, because that was just what they did.

Dream looked around at his four friends who were sharing their first laugh together in over a month. What a life they were living,  _ huh _ .

He looked at Tommy, who was talking animatedly with George, and felt a burning in the pit of his stomach. He would avenge Sapnap, Tubbo, and Skeppy. A flash of red appeared behind Dream’s eyelids when he blinked, Tubbo’s gory face staring back at him for a split second until he opened his eyelids again.

Either the teenager would admit to his crimes when they returned to Earth, or he’d go through more pain than he’d ever imagined, and then his final sentence would be banishment from everybody he’d ever known just like he did to Sapnap.

But until then, Dream knew he would have to play nice. He was a good actor, he’d manage it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt like uploading before work today hehehe. I really hope you enjoyed this chapter!!! As always, I love reading your theories and ideas in the comments, so keep em coming!!
> 
> I’m really excited to announce that a sequel is officially in the works- and by “In the Works” I mean I have a title and google doc open. It’s a start hehe. I can’t reveal pretty much anything about it without spoiling the ending of this book- which is approaching very quickly, might I add- but I promise it’ll be worth it. I’m in the middle writing the last chapter, and I’ll probably finish it today or tomorrow. I’ve had so much fun writing this for you all, and I really wanted to thank you for all of the support. The last big project I wrote was back in 2018, and it flopped so badly that I quit writing for over two years. Since corona hit, Avatar got me back into writing, and I’m so glad it did.
> 
> But anyway, sorry for the long note I guess I’m feeling sentimental today. I love you guys!!!


	8. Pride

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOO ANOTHER THANK YOU TO @VILLERDOTPNG ON TUMBLR LET'S GET INTO THIS SHIT

It had been a while, but Dream was finally having some rare time alone. George was somewhere nearby- he’d just gotten bored of watching the blonde mess with the computer in nav. After almost two months, they’d gotten nothing else out of that computer, but Dream was convinced that they were missing something- he just had a gut feeling. George said he was obsessed, but Dream liked to think that he was just being a good detective.

Bad had been sitting with Dream and chatting for a bit until a loud rumble from his stomach sounded and the dark haired man announced that he was getting something to eat. The blonde almost asked him to stay, but thought better of it- nothing would happen to him, they were safe. He was starting to trust Tommy and Wilbur more and more, if he was being honest. A darker part of him in the past three days or so had been thinking that maybe Bad, Tommy, and Wilbur were right, and Sapnap really  _ was _ the killer. Maybe himself and George were just blinded by trust and years of friendship.

He’d been talking to George about it, and the older seemed to agree at least somewhat, so they’d started to relax. They were getting more and more comfortable leaving each others’ sides for short periods of time, and were getting used to spending time around Tommy and Wilbur again. Dream still felt a bit weird around the teenager especially, but he imagined that would go away with time. Only a week ago he’d been plotting ways to frame the kid, or ways that he’d get revenge on him when they got back to Earth, but that was just the betrayal talking, wasn’t it? Dream didn’t know what was happening in his head anymore. He didn’t know if he was trusting the pair out of his primal need for normalcy and his desire for the nightmare to finally be over, or if it was because he truly thought that the killer was already gone. It gave him a headache whenever he thought about it, so he just tried not to think. 

Dream drummed his fingers impatiently on the table next to the keyboard; he didn’t enjoy the sitting and waiting game one bit. The blonde was slowly allowing himself rest and peace of mind, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was about to go horribly and irreversibly wrong. Trauma did that to a person, he guessed.

Dream got up from his normal chair and wiped a hand over his face. His stitches were slowly healing, and for that he was very grateful. A few days earlier he’d been subconsciously picking at them and George had scolded him as if he were some sort of child. “ _ They’re gonna get infected, you idiot _ !” he’d said. Dream smirked. Who was the idiot now? The blanket that Bad had draped over his shoulders hours ago slipped to the ground as well, but the blonde just left it there. He’d probably be back soon anyways.

He wandered casually out the door to Navigation with no real destination in mind. He just needed to get his eyes off of that damn screen for a few minutes- maybe he’d find George somewhere too. 

Dream wasn’t used to the sound of just his own boots echoing on the floor of the ship. He heard a voice coming from somewhere, but didn’t investigate. It was probably Wilbur and Tommy talking about the foods they were going to eat when they got back home. A lot of their bonding conversations as a group had been about food- Dream learned that him and Wilbur shared a love for Shepherd’s pie. It honestly strengthened their relationship more than it should have.

Dream hummed softly to himself as he walked past weapons and into the cafeteria, where he stopped to decide where he’d go next. The room was empty, as it usually was at that point in the day. He looked towards the kitchen door, debating whether or not to enter and check if Bad was still there, but decided against it. If he went in he knew he was gonna eat, and they were already trying to conserve their food. So, the blonde turned to go down the hallway that led to storage. 

‘ _ There are still some crates I haven’t gone through. _ ’ He mused. As he continued though, something felt off. Walking past the door to admin he got an incredibly bad feeling: the hair on his arms and on the back of his neck stood on end, and a feeling of dread built in the pit of his stomach.

That alone should’ve warned the hero  _ not _ to enter the room, but he did anyway. 

Dream, as usual, regretted his actions as soon as he made them.

He turned away from the scene, left hand flying to cover his mouth, eyes wide from shock. Dream had avoided it in all of the tragedy thus far, but this time he couldn’t stop the bile as it rose in his throat. The acid burned his esophagus and the backs of his nostrils as he vomited violently, dropping to his hands and knees to try to help the contents of his stomach escape faster. God, if he thought that seeing Tubbo’s eye hanging from the socket and his head bashed in was bad,  _ fuck _ , that was  _ nothing _ compared to what lay in front of him. Tears leaked out of the corners of Dream’s eyes as he squeezed them shut while sitting up and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, flashbacks filling his brain and making him hyperventilate.

“HELP!” He screamed, sitting with his back pressed against the wall. “FUCK, SOMEONE HELP!” Dream’s breaths were coming in shallow bursts as he forced himself to look at the gruesome scene again.

Dead eyes stared at the ceiling, dull and unblinking. The skin on his face had already begun to take on a blue/gray hue, and his cheeks were sunken in- it looked like he’d been laying there dead for at least an hour.

He was laid spread eagle on the floor, shirt ripped in half. Dream’s dizziness increased the longer he looked.

There was just so much fucking gore. More than he’d ever seen at once in his life.

From about the bottom of his rib cage to the top of his pelvis was a deep, jagged gash which gave Dream a perfect view into his insides, or at least what was left of them. 

Each side of his skin had been pulled apart to reveal a mess of broken guts, bone fragments, and flesh. His intestines were pulled out and strewn haphazardly on the floor, as if the killer had been taking stock of the man’s internal organs. Blood painted the floor intricately, pooling on the cold metal just as Skeppy’s had. 

The organs were mutilated beyond recognition, but that wasn’t even the most disturbing part of it all. The others came running in as Dream read the words carved into his chest intricately, the blood even wiped away from the wounds carefully so that the killer  _ knew _ they would be able to read it. 

_ ‘Wilbur Soot was not the Imposter _ ’ 

The words read, clear as day. 

Anger and disgust rose in his chest as he realized who had done it.

Dream was unceremoniously shoved out of the way by Tommy, who, as expected, was screaming and crying hysterically as if he didn’t just fucking murder Wilbur. As disgusting of a person as Tommy was, he was also obviously a damn good actor. The blood that Dream landed in after the push was cold and sticky as it seeped into his clothing. Tommy grabbed Wilbur’s body by the shoulders and started to shake him, as if somehow by magic his tears and pleas and desperation would bring his older friend back from the dead, but it was no use. 

“WILBUR FUCK, COME BACK!  _ NOT YOU TOO _ !” Tommy cried, and in that moment, it truly hit the green-eyed hero that him and George were  _ right _ . And despite everything, the trauma from finding three of his friends brutally murdered, and one of his closest companions being falsely accused and banished, Dream started to laugh. 

And he couldn’t stop. 

Tears and snot ran down his face as he basically cackled, banging a fist on the floor because it was just so fucking hilarious to him that Wilbur was  _ dead _ , and it had been Tommy who killed him. The person who Wilbur trusted most out of all of them had been the one to stab him in the back without another thought. God, the irony was almost poetic. He ignored Bad and George yelling at him to stop, asking him if he was okay. He just laughed, because he was  _ right _ . 

Well, he laughed until Tommy’s hand slapping him across the face knocked him out of it.

“WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU  _ LAUGHING?! _ ” Tommy screamed at him, getting Wilbur’s blood all over Dream’s shirt when he grabbed the older. George pushed Tommy off of him, who landed on his ass next to Wilbur’s right leg.

“Shut up Tommy.” The brit said coldly. Dream massaged his tender cheek, giggles once again leaking out of his mouth. Fuck, nothing in this universe could possibly be more fucking comedic than this. It was so funny that after the initial shock of finding Wilbur, guts strewn out on the floor, and the message carved in his chest, Dream felt nothing. He felt nothing other than pride that he was right about Tommy. There was sadness, maybe. Disgust, definitely, but that was all buried deep down. He’d already seen enough brutal death in the past two months than most people would see in a lifetime, and he’d obviously adjusted to it.

“Dream?” Bad asked meekly. The blonde looked up at his friend, who was shaking out of fear.

“I’m okay, Bad.” He reassured, struggling to his feet. He dusted off his pants and breathed in deeply through his nose, taking in the stench of flesh and blood which permeated the room. “Actually, I’m better than okay, because George and I? We were right.” He said, gesturing between himself and the brit, who was holding his mouth in an attempt not to vomit just as Dream had.

“You are the sickest motherfucker I’ve ever met.” Tommy stated, voice trembling. Dream smiled at the teenager, and walked toward him. Tommy backed up, almost tripping on Wilbur’s limp arm while the blonde just stepped over it, uncaring of the corpse on the floor. 

“Am I? Because if my memory serves me correctly, you said the same thing about Sapnap before you launched him off to die alone in space.” Dream countered easily. 

“Dream-” George choked out, but the younger ignored him. 

“I-I’m sorry about Sapnap. I really thought-” Tommy started, but was cut off.

“You didn’t  _ think _ , you knew he was innocent, and framed him.” Dream stated. “You killed one of my best friends.” Tommy circled around the desk, trying to get to the door. “You killed Tubbo to make yourself look innocent.” George reached out a hand to calm Dream down, but Bad pulled it back down, and shook his head. “You killed Skeppy to make Sapnap look suspicious because you knew George and I suspected you.” Tommy’s chest was heaving with every breath. “I don’t know  _ why _ you would kill Wilbur- maybe because we’re so close to home and you wanted to see how many you could pick off. Maybe he was an easy kill.” 

“You know Dream, I bet it was you.” Tommy turned to George and Bad, a begging expression on his face. “You found him, you had that cut on your arm when Skeppy was murdered-” He tried to appeal weakly. Dream burst out in another laugh, but he didn’t even have to defend himself.

“Tommy, we know it wasn’t Dream.” George spoke up. The younger sputtered. 

“Well, maybe it was-” The older blonde cut him off.

“What, you expect me to believe that George did it? That Bad did it?” Dream scoffed. “We know it was you, and we suspected it from the start.” Tommy stepped back, obviously poised to run. But he’d dug his grave- 

he would sleep in it.

“Dream, please-“ Tommy begged, tears streaming down a red face.

“You wanted to be a man so badly?  _ Fine _ . Now you are one. Face the consequences of your actions, and get the  _ fuck _ off of my ship.” Dream proclaimed coldly. George and Bad stepped forward to back the blonde up. “You don’t get to play God, Tommy.”

“But  _ you _ do?” He shot back. Dream didn’t respond.

“We can do this the easy way, or the hard way.” Bad said, obviously dreading having to throw the teenager out.

“Bad, we’re friends-“ George cut off Tommy’s attempt at appealing to the oldest of them.

“We were all friends, but you threw that away.” The brunette shot out a hand and grabbed Tommy by the arm. “It’s time.”

“NO!” Tommy screeched, trying to pull his arm out of George’s grasp. Bad held him by his other, and together the two pulled him kicking and screaming out of the room. “IT WASN’T ME! IT WAS DREAM, LET ME GO! YOU _ HAVE TO LET ME GO _ !” Tommy’s shrieks echoed off of the metal walls as the pair pulled him down the hallway towards the airlock. “THIS IS BULLSHIT! I DON’T EVEN GET A TRIAL!?”

Dream looked down to Wilbur again, sadness finally creeping back in amongst his pride. The brunette didn’t deserve to die so brutally, especially at the hands of someone he cared for as much as Tommy. Still though, the body couldn’t just sit there to rot in a pool of its own blood. Wilbur deserved respect. Well, he really deserved to make it back to Earth, but the green eyed man couldn’t make that happen; not anymore.

So Dream got to work, trying to put pieces of mangled organs back into Wilbur’s abdominal cavity so that he would be able to carry him to the airlock more easily. It was disgusting work, especially because the blonde didn’t have gloves, but he got it done despite the gagging. The longer it took, the more numbness took over his pride, and reality set back in.

Four of his friends were dead, but at least the killer was finally getting what he deserved. Dream couldn’t believe he’d started to trust Tommy again. Fuck, he was lucky that the teenager hadn’t killed George instead.

Dream gathered Wilbur’s broken body in his arms bridal style, the lanky figure a little awkward to carry, but started to move him over to the airlock. The weight of the body against the gash in his arm left an uncomfortable ache, but the blonde welcomed it. Blood dripped behind Dream in a trail of red as he walked, until he reached the airlock. Tommy was locked inside, sitting criss-crossed on the floor, eyes closed.

“He said he wanted to wait for Wilbur.” Bad clarified at Dream’s questioning glance. The blonde nodded and walked forwards.

“Bad, open the lock. George, be prepared to grab Tommy in case he runs out or lunges at you.” Dream said, hefting Wilbur up so that he could get a better grip. The pair nodded and went to their assigned places. When Bad opened the door, Tommy made no moves, not even when Dream placed Wilbur gently on the floor beside him.

“I know you think it’s me, but you’re wrong.” Tommy said, voice steady. “And if it’s you, Dream, I really hope you’re happy with yourself. I feel awful for George and Bad, who are probably going to die in even more gruesome ways than Will did.” Dream didn’t pause, ignoring every word that came out of the younger’s mouth.

“I really did value our friendship, Tommy.” Dream said, folding Wilbur’s arms over his chest, then getting back to his feet. “I hope hell is a nicer place than God says it is, for your sake.” He walked out, then motioned for Bad to close the door again.

The older blonde watched as Tommy smiled lightly and shook his head, then reached over to hold Wilbur’s hand. ‘ _ I’ll see you there soon _ .’ He mouthed. Tears rolled down his cheeks but he didn’t close his eyes, not even when Dream told Bad to open the latch, and the two were sucked out into space.

Gone in the blink of an eye.

The trio stood in silence for a moment, the severity of their actions weighing down on them. Dream thought that once Tommy was gone, the weight would finally lift off his chest, but it didn’t. It stayed there, heavy and unmoving. The blonde looked down at his hands for a moment, which were coated in a thick layer of Wilbur’s blood and bits of his guts- he just wiped them on his pants. He’d have to get new clothes later. Dream looked over just as George’s knees buckled, and lunged over to catch him as he fell.

“Are you okay?” Dream panicked, checking over the smaller man to see if he’d been injured in any way. Bad joined him at George’s side, looking down in concern. The brit nodded weakly in response, and Dream lowered them down until he was sat on the floor with George in his arms in his lap- he looked exhausted. Bad sat next to the pair, and without a word wrapped them both in a hug. George reached up tenderly to run his fingertips over Dream’s red cheek. 

“That’s definitely going to bruise.” He said softly. Dream shrugged.

“I’ll just add it onto my extensive list of injuries.” He was quiet for a moment. “I just really feel like I need to say that I’m sorry.” Dream said, emotions finally breaking through again as his voice cracked and tears leaked slowly from big green eyes.

“No, I’m sorry.” Bad insisted softly. “If I had just  _ believed  _ you guys, Wilbur wouldn’t even be dead right now. And, and Sapnap would still be here.” He wept, squeezing his arms around his younger friends even more tightly.

“That’s in the past now.” George said softly. “I forgive you.” 

“And you already know that goes double for me.” Dream reassured. “We’ve got to have each others’ backs now. It’s just us.” Bad nodded. 

They stayed that way for a while, wrapped up in each other on the floor outside of the airlock. Dream’s back hurt, and his legs were sore, and he was soaked in cold blood, but he didn’t move. He was broken. He’d lost so much for absolutely nothing. He couldn’t focus on what— no— _ who _ he’d lost, though.

He still had Bad, and his endless optimism and happiness. He still had George, with his wit and sarcasm. Maybe then, two weeks from home, Dream could finally start to repair what had broken inside him the day Tubbo had died, and had continued to break with each subsequent murder of someone he cared about.

Maybe now, he was safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone enjoyed this roller coaster of a chapter lol. If any artists are interested in making any art for this fic, PLEASE do it and leave a comment with a link, there are some things that I think would translate so well into physical artwork (like Dream falling asleep at the computer in Nav, or Sapnap punching the glass in the airlock). Also, as you can see this fic is now part of a SERIES WOAHHHHHH!! More on that to come, no spoilers here!
> 
> Also- if anyone would like to add me on Discord to talk about the story, theories, Dream Team, or play Among Us, my username is cloud#9027. I'd be happy to talk to anyone, friends are scarce in Corona times.
> 
> I look forward to everyone's thoughts and theories in this chapter- I put a lot in here. I love you all so much, and thank you for reading!


	9. Mercy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Felt like uploading a day early hehe  
> A quite large thank you to my beta @villerdotpng on Tumblr!

A week away from Earth, and only three out of eight crewmates remained. When Dream looked out of the front windshield in Navigation, he could finally see the little blue speck that himself, Bad, and George called home. He couldn’t wait to get off of the damn ship and destroy it.

Now that Tommy was gone, Dream finally allowed himself to put his guard down. Well, he tried to at least. He still didn’t like going places alone, and especially disliked George going anywhere without him. Not that he didn’t trust Bad, because he trusted the older with his whole heart, but after going through so much trauma it was hard for things to just “go back to normal” in a week. All three of them had trouble sleeping and would regularly wake up mid scream from a nightmare. George ran to Dream’s bedside shaking one night, telling the green-eyed man that he’d dreamt that instead of Wilbur having words carved in his chest, it had been Dream. 

That was the night that the three men pushed their beds together for comfort. At their current time, the three were in communications, trying to make contact with Earth through the radios. They figured that maybe they were finally within range, but nothing had come of it yet. 

Dream pulled at the hem of his tight shirt, trying to make it cover the stupid sliver of stomach that kept showing every time he breathed or moved his arms. After they’d banished Tommy, Dream had gone almost immediately to find new clothes to wear. After looking through storage, all he’d been able to find was a green t-shirt that was about two sizes too small for him. When he peeled off that blood soaked shirt, he went to find a mirror. George had followed him, of course, wanting to be sure that the younger wasn’t going to do something stupid. Bad had told him to give Dream some time alone, but of course George ignored him. When the pair found one, they just stared at Dream’s torso. There was a thin layer of Wilbur’s blood on him, and when the blonde rubbed at it, it flaked off easily. The stitches on his arm were slightly irritated, and of course there was the blooming hand shaped bruise on his cheek. George said nothing as he stepped forward and helped Dream wash every speck of blood from his skin, and even the little bits that had gotten in his hair. He was stuck in his bloodstained suit pants, so he scrubbed them about twenty times in scalding water, burning his hands in the process. It scared him that he enjoyed the pain of it. The gore of three of his friends were trapped in that fabric, and he never wanted that to touch his skin again.

But that was a week ago, and now as he messed with his shirt hem, George slammed down one of the radios and put his head in his hands out of frustration, leaning his elbows on the table. 

“Nothing. Not a single word.” The brit said through clenched teeth. 

“Maybe we’re still not in range-” Bad tried, but was unsuccessful in his attempt to calm the younger down. George slammed a fist on the table.

“No! We should be in range by now. We’re literally only a week out, I don’t get it!” He yelled. Dream came to stand behind George and rubbed his shoulders gently, trying to relieve at least some of his stress. “We can literally see it from navigation!” He continued.

“George, deep breaths.” Dream said, though he was starting to feel the same frustrations. What could possibly be going on on Earth that would stop everybody from being on radios? There had to be at least one person on the planet who was on their frequency, unless of course they weren’t even transmitting anything.

“I just want to go  _ home _ .” The smaller man said. “I never want to see this goddamn ship ever again.”

“Language.” Bad said softly. He wasn’t looking at the younger, just turning some dials and pressing some buttons.

“God, will you just quit it with that?” George snapped. “Five of our friends are dead right now and we can’’t make contact with Earth, but you’re concerned with me saying a bad word.”

“George you don’t have to be a jerk.” Dream defended. He didn’t like that side of the brunette- he wasn’t usually one to be bitter or lash out at people, especially not Bad or himself. Well, not until recently. George stood up suddenly, pushing Dream back. He looked at the blonde almost hatefully for a moment.

“I need some time to myself.” He said, before promptly storming out of the room. He’d been doing a lot of that, lately. He was always so on edge, and it was freaking the blonde out. He supposed it made sense after everything they’d gone through that maybe George wouldn’t be the same person he was two months ago, but none of the murders had affected him much until Wilbur’s. Hell, he hadn’t even seemed too strange until a few days ago when the trio had been discussing landing plans.

Dream worried about him so much. Seeing George distraught made him almost physically sick, but what was he supposed to do? He could only handle the brit walking out on him so many times.

“He’ll be okay, Dream.” Bad’s voice brought the blonde out of his thoughts. Dream looked at the door which George had just walked through sadly. 

“I don’t know if he will.” Dream replied. Bad stayed quiet for a moment in thought before answering.

“Maybe he was expecting something from you.” The blonde scoffed at the answer.

“What could he be expecting? I have nothing left-” Bad sighed loudly.

“Do you not remember what I told you on our way to Reactor forever ago?” The brunette stood up from his chair and wrapped an arm tightly around Dream. “He’s in love with you! And he wants to know that you feel the same.” The green eyed hero laughed regretfully.   


“There’s more of a chance of George being the Imposter than him being in love with me.” He chuckled, but there was a sadness present. “He’s literally perfect, and I’m, well,  _ me _ .” He said, picking at his stitches. Bad shrugged, letting the younger go reluctantly.

“You’d be surprised.” He replied casually, turning back to the microphone to try to make contact once again.

“Well I mean, look.” Dream relented, sitting down in the chair that George had recently vacated. Bad hummed in response, letting Dream know he was listening. “Even if that was true, which it’s  _ not _ ,” He exaggerated. “why would that make him act all weird?”

“I dunno, maybe all the trauma has caught up to him.” Bad guessed, fiddling with some of the knobs on the receiver. “I don’t think he really processed what happened while it was happening, if you know what I mean. He reacted, but he didn’t really… react.” Bad pointed out. Dream realized he was right, actually. The blonde himself had definitely felt the weight of the deaths extremely, as did Bad. George mostly reacted in the moment, and other than the nightmares seemed to bounce back fairly easily until now. Maybe the anger and lashing out was his way of coping.

“That could be it, actually.” Dream agreed.

“I still think it’s just because he’s pining after you.” Bad teased, and Dream rolled his eyes. 

“Yeah, okay.”

“But, you know, it could be anything.” He said.

The brunette reached down and started fiddling with something in his pocket, signalling to the blonde that he was getting anxious. He’d been doing that kind of thing a lot; he said that it calmed him down a lot to fidget with something. When Dream asked what the older was playing with, he got all teary eyed and said that it was something of Skeppy’s, just as George had walked into the room. Dream and George didn’t mention it again after that. “I’ve been thinking about everyone else a lot lately.” he said. Dream tensed.

“Yeah, me too.” Now that he wasn’t stressing about there still being a murderer on board, Dream had had time to… process things. “It’s so quiet now. I can’t believe we let Tommy get away with everything for so long…” He let the words hang in the air for a moment. “Hearing Sapnap’s last words being that he hated us… I don’t think I’m ever going to forget it.” Dream admitted. God, it hurt to think about.

“I still can’t believe I voted him off… I jumped to conclusions because I was upset, and now he’s dead.” Bad replied, but his voice seemed to be lacking in feeling. Dream took it as a sign to maybe drop the subject. It was still sore, and it would always be sore for the brunette especially. Dream couldn’t imagine the guilt that Bad must’ve been feeling.

The blonde would never forget the pure hatred and betrayal that painted Sapnap’s face as he pounded on that glass. It broke his heart, and he just let it happen. But what the fuck was he supposed to do in that situation? Tommy was pointing fingers at him, and Wilbur had obviously been about to listen to the little asshole and throw him in there along with Sapnap. Where would that have left George? Right at their mercy. 

‘ _ Well, at Tommy’s mercy. _ ’ He thought. ‘ _ Wilbur obviously didn’t know better _ .’

Dream brought a hand to his mouth when a bit of bile came up from his throat and a wave of dizziness hit him as he thought of Wilbur specifically. The blonde suddenly felt sticky; like he had the blood covering him again, but took slow breaths to calm himself. He’d been learning to cope with the flashbacks, but that didn’t make them any less awful. 

“What do you think it’s like at home?” Dream asked after taking time to collect himself.

“I don’t know, actually. The man in that audio file made it seem like we’d be coming back to a wasteland.” Bad thought for a second, scratching his chin. His eyes flicked to the doorway for just a moment. “I find it a little difficult to believe that an entire planet could just be demolished in two months.” Dream nodded in agreement.

“I was thinking the same thing. Everything was fine before we were taken, and now we’re supposed to just believe that  _ something _ is happening.” The blonde emphasized with a little hand shake. “The most deadly thing that went on was me shoving you off of the edge of the Nether Fortress.” Bad chuckled.

“I don’t care if the whole planet is burnt to ash. I just want to get off of this thing.”

“I want to give our friends proper funerals.” Dream stated firmly. “Even Tommy, as much as I hate him. I don’t know what happened to him, but whatever it was must’ve been awful.”

“It’s like he was possessed or something. Maybe there was an alien parasite in his brain or something.” Bad said. Dream laughed.

“I mean assuming he’d been bloodthirsty the whole trip, I don’t know how he’d get a parasite in his head.” The brunette shrugged, continuing to fiddle with whatever the hell he had in his pocket.

“Maybe space parasites are smarter than we think they could be. If they existed, hypothetically.” He replied, something seeming to be on his mind.

The curiosity was tearing Dream apart. “Bad, I know you said it’s Skeppy’s, but what do you have in your pocket?” The older seemed to consider the question, then just stared at the doorway. Dream blew out a breath and turned around to shuffle through the papers which they’d scattered on the table that occupied the back wall, taking the silence as his answer. Maybe they missed some information on them after going through every word five times.

“I really hope that Earth is in shambles.” Bad said suddenly. Dream turned around casually, papers in his arms. “It’s time for humans to experience some Karma.”

“What are you talking about?” Dream was met with a sharp object pointed directly at his throat, and jumped back before it could slash his jugular open. “Bad what the fuck!” 

“I’m righting your planet’s wrongs.” He replied, then lunged forward at the man in green. The world seemed to freeze in place. Bad was still, knife pointed towards Dream menacingly, nothing on the older man’s face except the obvious desire to kill.

And in that moment, that split second, everything clicked into place.

Bad was the best liar of them all; Dream hadn’t suspected him for a second.

And now he was going to pay the ultimate price for it.

Dream sidestepped out of the way just in time to only receive a small cut on the side of his neck. The papers that he’d been holding floated to the ground, and the blonde raised his fists in a defensive stance. Bad- if that even  _ was  _ Bad, cocked his head to the side. 

“I’m impressed, you’re the first to not go down immediately.” He said. Dream was filled with rage at the implication that  _ any  _ of his friends were weak. That Tubbo was weak, or Skeppy, or Wilbur. The people that he murdered without what the blonde assumed a second thought.

“You killed them.” Dream stated, backing away from another slash of the small knife. Not the most efficient weapon for killing someone as skilled in combat as Dream- he probably thought he’d have the element of surprise. Well, he would have had it if he hadn’t made a snarky little comment before going in for the kill. Rookie mistake. Now, he had to finish the job. ‘Bad’ smiled, crazed. 

“It was a pleasure. I have to say it was difficult to decide how to react; all of your friend’s memories of death were so casual. But it’s no worry, I learn fast.” He laughed darkly, then proceeded to spit at Dream’s feet. “I am your gift. I am going to save your planet from itself.”

“What the hell happened to you?” Dream asked, but it was mostly an attempt to stall and think of a way out of his situation. He couldn’t call for Geoge- the brit could be on the other side of the ship and not even hear his cries, and that would just make Bad kill him faster. The imposter also stood in front of the door, so there was no escape.

“Oh it’s much too long of a story for me to get into now, especially on such a limited time frame.” He started to creep forward again, and Dream simply stepped back. He had to come up with a plan- “Your friend is gone. He’s been gone. And looking through his memories the past two months has shown me that humans are so weak. You rely on empathy to drive you, and that was your downfall.” Bad laughed darkly for a moment, before his eyes trained on Dream’s once again. “You are  _ weak. _ You are  _ nothing.”  _ Hearing those words coming out of Bad’s mouth, the most gentle person he’d ever known, was like a punch to the gut.

“What the fuck are you?” Dream asked. He’d weighed his options. The only thing he could do was attack and hope to God that he’d win.

“Doesn’t matter, you’re gonna die either way.” At that the brunette stepped forward, knife swinging again.

Dream ducked under the arc of the blade, and attempted to grab his attacker’s wrist and twist it. As if he’d anticipated the move, Bad changed his trajectory to angle downwards instead. The wound on Dream’s neck let out a gush of blood when he yanked his arm out of the way. Faster than the blonde could even perceive, Bad turned around and swept out his leg, knocking Dream off balance. It wasn’t enough to make him fall, but it was damn close. 

‘ _ If you die, he’s going to kill George. _ ’ Dream thought as he swung out a fist that Bad dodged easily. Whatever had taken over the man’s body had obviously enhanced his combat speed. ‘ _ You have to live. You have to win _ .’ 

Bad lashed out again, this time cutting a stripe from the outer corner of Dream’s left eye down to his chin. It wasn’t particularly deep, at least it didn’t feel like it was, but the blade of the knife was millimeters from blinding him. He’d leaned back just in time to avoid having his brain stabbed, but he also leaned back into the wall. He was trapped.

“You know, you’ve been a thorn in my side this whole  _ fucking _ trip.” It felt so wrong to hear a curse coming out of Bad’s mouth. He was the kindest of them all, reduced to nothing more than a vessel. “You should’ve told George how you felt. Because now you’re both going to die-” The brunette held the knife to Dream’s throat. Every time he breathed, the bonde’s Adam’s apple would press against it. Beads of sweat ran down from his temples, stinging the new cut that left blood dripping down his cheek. “And I’m going to  _ really  _ enjoy it.” Bad’s pupils were dilated so much that none of the soft brown could be seen anymore. 

Dream took his left hand, and as quickly as he could, punched Bad’s elbow. Luckily for the blonde, Bad didn’t put more pressure into his throat, but rather was caught by surprise, the knife flying from his hand. Dream then kneed him in the stomach,  _ hard _ . God, it was so difficult to hurt Bad, even though it wasn’t really him. Dream had to keep reminding himself that It was an alien who had taken him over.

The taller pushed him away, desperate to get to the knife first. Bad’s fingers dug into his upper arm so forcefully that Dream could feel his skin seem to rip. 

“FUCK!” Dream yelled, pulling out of Bad’s grip, but losing some flesh in the process. The searing pain took over his mind for a moment, but he had no choice but to get to the weapon first. It was life or death, especially because Bad was obviously strong enough to rip him apart, even without a knife. Dream didn’t look at his arm- he knew he’d throw up or pass out or something stupid, and that definitely wasn’t the time for it. It scared Dream more than he’d like to admit that Bad was suddenly strong enough to rip the flesh from his bones as if he was tearing the bark from a piece of wood.

“There’s no winning, Dream.” Bad said, launching himself forward still. The older knocked Dream to the ground about a yard from where the knife lay, as if he were trying to bust his kneecaps or something to stop him from running. Dream could almost see that curved blade dripping with the blood from Tubbo’s neck, or Skeppy’s tongue, or Wilbur’s stomach. He had to avenge them.

The blonde crawled forward, ignoring his arm and face screaming in pain, and reached out as far as he could while simultaneously trying to kick off the body that lay on top of him. He screamed again as Bad’s fingernails bit into his side, but still he reached. 

“I don’t need a knife to kill you, motherfucker.” Bad said, his voice scratchy and raw. He sounded psychotic. “I can tear you apart-” Dream let out a blood curdling screech as the brunette started to pull from his side, flesh tearing and blood vessels bursting. “Limb. By. Limb.” Dream felt around desperately for the knife- he couldn’t see anymore from the tears and blood that clouded his vision, not to mention the panic that filled him. The blonde’s heart raced, but a wave of relief washed over him when his fingers wrapped around the handle.

Immediately Dream went in for a stab, and felt a rush of endorphins when Bad flinched back- he’d hit his mark. The blonde took this as an opportunity to kick the man in black off of him and scurry to his feet. He felt woozy but stood his ground brandishing the knife.

“I bet you’re not used to your victims fighting back, are you?’” Dream asked, cockiness seeping into his voice despite the fact that  _ he  _ was far more injured than the older. Dream didn’t lose. Ever.

He reached up with his non-injured arm for a split second to wipe the blood from his eyes, and relished in the bit of fear that he picked up in the imposter’s face. Sure, he was severely bleeding out, but he wasn’t going to back down.

Dream lunged forward, blade poised to stab. Bad tried to block his movements, but the surprise made him sloppy. He was used to his victims being easy kills due to stealth- his speed and strength were good at that, but obviously the alien hadn’t studied the parts of Bad’s memories that included Dream’s fighting style.

He slashed and hacked brutally until Bad finally dropped to the floor, Dream on top of him, knife pressed to his throat. Bad’s chest was heaving, and he was now covered in stab and slash wounds from their short battle. Dream pressed the blade in, beginning to draw blood, but something changed in the Imposter’s eyes: tears began to form.

“D-Dream?” Bad said. The blonde stilled in his movements, but let up no pressure. “Dream please, I’m still here, it’s, it’s  _ hurting me _ , please make it stop.” The older screwed his eyes shut as the tears began to fall, sliding daintily down his cheeks and making tracks in the blood that had risen from his own wounds or what had dripped down from Dream’s.

“Stop.” Dream demanded through gritted teeth. His arms were shaking from the effort of keeping a steady pressure against Bad’s jugular. “I know it isn’t Bad. This isn’t going to work.” He said, mostly to convince himself that what he was doing was right. He was avenging his friends;  _ he  _ was the good guy. But looking into Bad’s face, terrified and pleading, was making him feel like the truth was otherwise.

“It made me kill them, I didn’t want to.” Bad hiccupped. He brought one of his hands up to wrap around Dream’s wrist, but applied no pressure to it. The man in green didn’t have the strength to push it off- he barely had the strength to hold the damn knife. “It said that it would save you and George and Sapnap and Skeppy if I did what it wanted, but it lied.” 

“SHUT UP!” Dream yelled, tears beginning to spill from his own eyes. He couldn’t handle it. He’d already lost so much, so many people he loved.  _ He couldn’t kill Bad too _ . “Just shut up. Let me  _ do this _ !” But of course it wouldn’t be that kind, whatever it was.

“I can’t die like Skeppy did. I need to find a way to make this right.” He said, grip tightening on Dream’s wrist. “We’ve been friends forever, you’re really going to kill me? You’re going to kill me like you let them kill Sapnap?” Bad asked, big brown eyes wet and red. The blood in his hair was starting to crust as it dried. 

“Don’t make it worse.” Dream’s voice cracked, but he kept his jaw tight. “You’re, you’re just prolonging the inevitable.”

“Don’t you remember when we met? We were starving, cold, and injured. But we had each other.” He cocked his head a bit. “We  _ saved _ each other. You can save me, Dream. You can save me, and George, and we can have a family again.” Bad insisted. Dream’s chest rose and fell in uneven heaves. “Don’t you miss that?”

Dream’s brain instantly was flooded with memories of the past. 

Dream, George, and Sapnap were huddled together in a small cave around a tiny fire, shivering. Their clothes were torn, and Sapnap was trying to stave off screams while George attempted to pull an arrow out of his arm. Dream was keeping watch, sword arm shaking. They were just kids- 13, 15, and 11. The snow was swirling in the dark and the wind howled fiercely. Monsters roamed nearby, and Dream had to turn around to shush George as he comforted the youngest, holding his arm where the arrow once was. If a stray zombie or spider, or god forbid a  _ creeper,  _ caught wind of their position, they were dead: they didn’t know where they’d respawn after traveling for so long and so far. 

And suddenly, there was a silhouette in the cave’s entrance, barely visible in the low light provided by the fire. Dream scrambled to his feet and readied his sword to swing, but was stopped.

“Wait!” A voice cried. The person walked closer, and Dream kept the sword raised, trying to mask the shaking in his arms from his exhaustion and the bitter cold. “Please, I was just looking for shelter.” He had his hands raised in surrender, hair and clothing covered in a thick layer of snow as he shivered. He looked gaunt, with a pack on his back and a sword on his belt. 

“Who are you?” Dream asked, teeth chattering. He tried his best to make himself look big, but at just thirteen years old there wasn’t much he could do about it. He was skinny from hunger, and naturally lanky. He was just starting a growth spurt, but the newcomer was obviously bigger and older than all of them, even George.

“My name is Bad.” He introduced, slowly lowering his arms when Dream lowered his sword. Bad’s brown eyes locked on Sapnap and George, who were still sat behind Dream. George had a hand on the hilt of his sword, and his body was angled in front of Sapnap protectively. The newcomer’s eyes softened, and he dropped his pack to the ground, lowering himself to his knees. Dream looked on with curiosity as he opened the top flap of the bag, and started pulling out a blanket, followed by a small pot, some type of meat, and some other ingredients. “Let me help you.” He’d said, voice tender. A kind smile rested on his face as he watched George cautiously step forward and take said blanket, pull Dream next to Sapnap, and wrap the two younger kids in it.

“My name is George, and that’s Dream, and Sapnap.” George introduced. Dream couldn’t see his expression, but had always guessed at what kind of look took over his older friend’s face that night. “Can you keep them safe?” He’d asked. Bad nodded earnestly. “Then welcome to the family.”

Dream shook his head in an attempt to rid himself of the memory. This wasn’t the same person anymore. Bad swallowed harshly, the pressure from his Adam’s apple against the blade causing the small incision to deepen. 

“You killed Tubbo and Wilbur and Skeppy. If you were really Bad, you wouldn’t have ever laid a finger on them. This is ridiculous.” Dream’s head was hurting so badly. He wanted this to be Bad. He wanted the alien to have just disappeared and given his friend back, but he knew it wasn’t the case. The man who had taken care of him after he busted his leg on an adventure was gone. The guy who hyped him up before their manhunts was gone. The friend who convinced him that it was okay to love who he loved was gone.

Thoughts of George at the end of Bad’s blade flashed through his mind.

If Dream wanted any chance of saving that man he loved, he would have to go through with it. 

His hand tightened around the hilt of the knife, which didn’t go unnoticed by the man beneath him.

“You know George is in love with you, he’ll never forgive you if you hurt me.” Dream kept his emotions in check, despite the way they swirled inside of him. Bad seemed to switch tactics when his words didn’t have the desired effect. “Well why am I still alive?” The Imposter questioned. “You’re letting me live longer than you guys let Sapnap live.” That was the last straw. Sapnap’s hateful face took over Dream’s brain for a moment, strengthening his resolve.

“Don’t say his name.” The blonde said coldly, readjusting his grip on the knife. “You’re the reason he’s dead- that  _ all of them are dead _ . And now, it’s your turn.” His gaze hardened. The innocent look on Bad’s face dropped, and as he lunged forward, Dream plunged the blade into his throat. “George is my family now.”

Dream tried not to focus on the choking sounds that came out of the Imposter’s mouth, but instead tried to think of other things. George’s smile, the way he laughed. Even the screams he let out when they sparred. The way his hair looked like chocolate diamonds in the golden light of the sunset, and how right it felt to hold the smaller man in his arms. That was worth saving, at all costs.

The expression on Bad’s face changed instantly from bloodthirsty to shocked, brown eyes wide. Blood squirted from the wound, hitting Dream in the face, some of it even getting in his mouth. It was sticky and hot, tasting of copper, and the blonde felt like he was going to throw up yet again. Bad’s body dropped back to the floor, head lolling to the side to face the door. Dead.

It was over. 

Fuck, it was  _ finally  _ over. 

Dream swung his leg over Bad’s body so that he was kneeling beside it on the opposite side to the door. ‘ _ It’s just another manhunt _ .’ He thought, bitterness seeping into his brain. He’d rather be bitter than allow the realization that he’d killed one of his best and closest friends take over his thoughts. He’d done what he had to to protect himself, and to protect George.

Dream looked down at Bad’s body and attempted to wipe down his own face, but only succeeded in spreading his old friend’s blood across his forehead. A sound across the room caused him to look up though, and as his chest heaved, he met wide brown eyes.

“Dream?” George asked, fear prevalent in his voice as he looked onto the scene from the doorway. Dream looked down at himself, chunks of flesh missing from his arm and side, blood covering him from head to toe. He couldn’t forget about the stinging cuts on his neck and face that were bleeding profusely, or the stitches that had broken that were leftover from his older wound.

“I can explain.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, there you guys have it! It's been so hard to not give things away when replying to comments or reading your theories. Some of what you guys came up with was absolutely incredible, and everything was so plausible. The story isn't over yet though!
> 
> If you want to talk the story, Dream Team, or Among Us, my Discord is cloud#9027 and I'd love to chat!!!
> 
> This week has been super hard for me, so I thought that maybe doing an early upload would make me feel better. I love you all!!


	10. Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wowie yet another glorious thank you to @villerdotpng on Tumblr!!

Silence hung in the air, the tension thick enough to cut through with a sword. The lack of blood in Dream’s body was making him feel woozy and lightheaded, but still he got shakily to his feet, refusing to spare the Imposter’s body a second glance. 

“George, I-” Dream started, ready to explain everything that had just happened, but the brit recoiled away when he reached out a red hand towards him. Dream took his arm back at the terrified expression on George’s face.

“It was you this whole time?” George asked quietly, his body tensing obviously. Dream’s heart stopped.

George thought that  _ he _ was the Imposter. 

‘ _ Well, how could he not _ ?’ Dream asked himself. No matter how obviously injured he was, at the end of the day Bad was the one laying dead on the floor, eyes unseeing turned at the ceiling with several slash and stab wounds covering him, not to mention the knife buried to the hilt that resided in his throat. And the blonde was just standing over him.

“George, you have to listen to me.” Dream tried to keep his voice steady and calm to stave off George’s panic. “He tried to kill me.” The brit shook his head roughly.

“No. You’re lying.” He said, hands curling into fists. Dream didn’t know if his body would be able to handle another fight if things escalated. He was already on the brink of collapse. “Bad  _ told me _ that he thought it was you.” Dream’s brow furrowed.

“When did he say that?” The blonde questioned, trying to stall yet again. George was between him and the door, just as the Imposter had been. The main difference between then and now was that Dream  _ knew _ he wouldn’t be able to hurt George- he wouldn’t have been able to do it even if he wasn’t injured.

“A few days ago he said he was suspicious, and I defended you!” He let out a burst of a laugh, stepping forward, unafraid. Dream could see why- he must’ve looked like a breeze could knock him over with how hurt he was. “I said, ‘ _ It can’t be Dream, he’d do anything to protect us. I trust him, I l- _ ’ He stopped himself, expression hardening. “It doesn’t matter. Now Bad is dead, Sapnap is dead,  _ Tommy  _ is dead.” George’s eyes flickered between the body that Dream had backed away from and the green eyed man himself. “You convinced me that Tommy was a killer. He was fucking  _ sixteen _ . I have to live with that for the rest of my life.” His voice cracked as he continued forwards. “Because of  _ you _ .”

“George, it was just the Imposter tricking you.” Dream tried to convince him desperately. “He tricked me too! He tricked  _ all of us _ .” He emphasized. “That wasn’t even Bad! It was an alien parasite in his brain. He—he said that he learned about us by looking through Bad’s memories, that’s how he knew how to act.” The blonde pleaded, but George wasn’t taking it. In a split second, the man in cyan reached down to the Imposter’s body, and ripped the knife from his throat to brandish it. 

An additional wave of nausea and dizziness washed over Dream at the sickening  _ squelch _ that came from the removal, and the small fountain of browning blood that exploded from his neck. The blood on the ground splashed when George walked through it, his boots getting covered in the liquid remnants of their friend. The brit held up his weapon threateningly, chest rising and falling quickly, eyes wide and pupils dilated. His hair was a mess, and he held his bottom lip between his teeth in concentration. This definitely wasn’t the time for Dream to find him beautiful.

“I am not afraid of you anymore.” He said, and for the second time in the span of twenty minutes, Dream had a knife aimed at his throat. 

“I’m not lying!” The younger almost fell over from the effort it took to dodge the blade. The tears falling from George’s eyes didn’t go unnoticed, either. “I did it to protect you! He was going to kill me, and then the only person left for him to get rid of was you.” His speech started to slur, and he was having trouble keeping his eyes focused. The blonde couldn’t even defend himself.

George struck out a hand in a punch, catching Dream’s injured arm before he even had time to react. The pain forced a scream out of him, and his vision whited out for a moment. The next thing he knew he was on the floor, a throbbing pain in his head. Half of his body lay in the cold pool of gore on the ground, head almost directly in line with the dead Imposter’s. Dream didn’t even have the time to try to get to his feet before George was on top of him, both hands on the bloody knife, blade pointed directly downwards at the blonde’s chest. His knees were on either side of Dream’s hips, and as George hovered over him, it was impossible to miss the way his hands shook, just as the man in green’s had when he was about to kill Bad.

“You, you’re going to pay for what you did to them all.” The brunette’s face was red and splotchy, fat tears dripping down his cheeks from glassy chocolate eyes. Dream reached up his hands to grip George’s wrists, pushing the blade away with all of his strength as the brit tried to drive the knife down. 

“God George,  _ please _ .” Dream begged, his arms seconds from giving out.

“DON’T MAKE THIS HARDER. I HAVE TO DO THIS.” He screamed. “I HAVE TO AVENGE THEM!” The blonde could see it in his eyes- he didn’t want to go through with it. Having George look at him like that- like a killer- it  _ hurt _ . No matter how much Dream was in love with him, it wouldn’t change what the brunette was going to do to him.

Dream was pushing as hard as he could, but his wounds and the lack of blood were just making it impossible. Slowly, the knife drew closer to his chest until the tip was settled snugly against the skin that covered where his heart was.

And then the blade started to pierce.

“STOP! GEORGE STOP!” Dream screamed, tears starting to fall down his face. The brit was refusing to meet his gaze as he continued to scream, throat going raw as he screwed his eyes shut.

“I have no choice.” George wept, but the pressure didn’t let up. The knife was already covered with Bad’s blood, so now they were mixing. It burned; it was a different type of pain from his other wounds. This was slow, and searing, and his vision was spotting. He let out a breath. 

This was how he was going to die. 

After everything he'd gone through, Dream was going to die by a physical and metaphorical knife to the heart wielded by his best friend who he was absolutely falling for. A slow tear fell down his cheek as he fell limp and resigned himself to his fate. At least George would be safe.

Then suddenly, the pressure let up. The knife was gone. 

Dream opened his eyes again, confused but definitely not complaining. The place where the knife had been was aching, adding another spot to the long list of points on his body that were bleeding profusely. The brit was looking to the side, mouth agape in shock.

“What the  _ fuck _ .” George said. Dream followed his gaze to where the Imposter lay, and if he wasn’t so weak, he would've scrambled away to get as far from  _ that _ as he could.

There was something black leaking from Bad’s eyes, nose, and mouth. It looked liquid kind of, but was obviously gelatinous. It gathered on the floor next to his head, the pile growing and moving as if it were alive. Dream didn’t have the energy to get away from it- he just turned his eyes to the ceiling and let out a small chuckle, allowing the tension to leak from his limbs.

“I told you.” He said. George immediately scrambled to climb off of the blonde, hands flying to his mouth to cover it in shock of what he’d done.

“Dream, I am so-”

“Save it. Get whatever that  _ fuck _ that is out of here. I don’t think I can move.” Dream said weakly. 

“On it.” George replied. The blonde just closed his eyes and focused on trying to keep the air in his lungs and his heart beating. It was harder than he thought it would be.

As George found some container to put the parasite in and took it presumably to the airlock to send out into space, Dream counted his breaths to stay conscious. It was so funny to him that without a vessel that thing was basically harmless- a skinny white boy could just put that murderous space parasite into a tupperware container and chuck it out into the void, no sweat. Counting hurt his chest way less than laughing did though.

1,2,3… God, the last half hour was the biggest shitshow of his life. One of his oldest friends almost killed him, and then the love of his life almost finished the job. Thinking too hard was making things more cloudy, so he tried not to think about the pain he was in or all of his friends being dead. Instead he would think about how pretty George was.

The way he moved was so unique. He could be graceful and agile, but sometimes he was a total klutz and a disaster. It was endearing, to be honest. And his loyalty was unmatched. Ever since the two had met, they’d always had each others’ backs, not just for survival; it was more than that. As teenagers they’d protected Sapnap together, and took turns being in charge when Bad was gone, even though George was older.

Dream missed the old days, when he still had all of the flesh in his arm and his side. He dreaded the bigass scar that would mar half of his face. Maybe he would look cool though, like a rugged adventurer. 

A smile creeped onto his lips.

Maybe George would think it was cute.

“Okay, I’m back.” The brit’s voice pulled Dream out of his stupor. “Fuck, you better not be dead Dream.” The blonde grunted in reply, peeling his eyelids open. The room was so bright. “Okay, not dead. Good, that’s good.” He said.

“For the love of God please just get me to medbay before I bleed out.” Dream croaked. Just speaking that one sentence exhausted him greatly. 

“Right, yes. I’ll fix you right up.” Dream couldn’t muffle the pained gasp that escaped his lips as George attempted to gather his lanky body in his arms. It was impossible for the older man to carry him without jostling one of his many wounds. As they walked out the door, Dream gave one last glance at Bad’s body, laying cold and lifeless on the ground. Eight years of friendship, gone in an instant. The blonde turned his head to bury it in George’s shoulder- he couldn’t look anymore.

The journey from comms to medbay felt literally like a lifetime, and the only thing keeping Dream conscious was George’s little whispers of encouragement that were intermingled with several dozen apologies. After the first three times assuring that he wasn’t mad at George and understood, he just gave up- it took way too much energy.

At long last Dream was deposited onto a bed in the medbay; not one of those stupid stainless steel tables that hurt his back. He had enough pain going on without that addition. George was completely drenched in Dream’s blood, chest heaving from the effort it took to carry a 6’3” man across an entire spaceship.

The older left his side immediately to gather what seemed to be the entire ship’s stockpile of gauze and disinfectant, as well as some other supplies that would presumably be used to stitch his wounds closed. Once all of the things George decided he would need were deposited on the cart, he wheeled it quickly over to Dream’s bed to get to work.

“He really fucked you up, didn’t he?” George asked as Dream hissed from the sting of disinfectant cleansing the blood from his skin. 

“It wasn’t just him, remember?” The blonde shot back. He watched the tips of his caretaker’s ears turn bright red along with his cheeks. He looked overwhelmed with the task in front of him, but seemed to decide that he would work from the smallest wounds to the biggest. Gentle fingers glided across his left cheek as the long cut was cleaned. It stung, but what didn’t? 

“This one isn’t deep enough for stitches, thank God.” George thought aloud. Dream watched as he carefully put medicine on a strip of gauze and leant down to place it on the cut, applying pressure with one hand while he placed medical tape with the other.

“What, you don’t think I’d look badass with stitches running down my face?” Dream joked lightly. The brunette snorted.

“I think you’d look more badass if you weren’t bleeding out on a bed in front of me.” He replied, running his fingers through blonde hair matted with blood in an attempt to get the clumps out. He then turned his attention to the laceration on Dream’s neck. The alcohol burned more there than it had on his face, but he just grit his teeth to get through it. He didn’t want George stopping to ask if he was okay, because that would probably just prolong the process. George squinted his eyes as he looked more closely at the now clean wound. “I think this one should be okay too.” He decided, then applied some more bandages to the smaller cut.

“Whatever you say, doctor.” Dream replied. He kept sinking between conscious and unconscious, his body feeling like fuzz. The brunette turned his attention to the torn stitches on his forearm, and began to remove them.

“I think this should be fine without the stitches.” He smirked a little before continuing. “Don’t worry though, you’ll obviously have plenty of other sets to pick at.” Dream didn’t have the energy to defend himself anymore, so he just grunted in annoyance. The blonde was starting to lose feeling in his arms, all except for the dull ache and sometimes shooting pains that came from his open wound. George went to inspect the big patch of missing flesh, but hesitated. “I’m gonna have to cut off your shirt- taking it off will just hurt you more, and I can’t work around it with it stuck to your skin.” Dream nodded to show his approval, but flinched when he felt the knife come near his wound. George paused. “I won’t hurt you, never again.” He promised, then began to slowly cut the shirt down the middle and peel it from blood covered skin.

As the brit worked, Dream tried to distract himself with thoughts of literally anything else. George gave up trying to clean the blood from the rest of his body fairly early on, and decided that it would be better to clean and stitch the actual sources of the bleeding. Dream’s eyes were having a hard time staying open, but when they were he took in how careful George was whenever he laid his hands on a wound, and how quickly he would pull away whenever the blonde flinched. His wide brown eyes would meet Dream’s own while he frantically asked if the younger was okay, which he always said he was. What else was he gonna do, say no? Say that it was his fault that so many of his friends died, because he was busy pointing fingers instead of picking up on obvious clues? Or maybe tell George that he was deeply and incredibly in love with him, and that he’d spent the majority of their time in space focusing on keeping him safe rather than finding the killer. Yeah, that would be a fantastic thing to say.

Dream opened his eyes again as he looked down his body to where George was hunched over his side, hand shaking slightly as he drew the needle back and forth through the blonde’s skin. Stitches probably weren’t the proper fix for such a wound, but they had very few options. He’d cleaned it, he’d sew it, he’d bandage it, and maybe if Dream was lucky he’d throw a little kiss on top for good measure.

“I have no clue how you aren’t unconscious right now.” George said offhandedly, breaking a piece of the surgical thread between his teeth. With an elbow he wiped messy brown hair and sweat from his forehead, and let out a breath. “You went unconscious from a flashback not too long ago, and now you can stay awake through losing most of the blood in your body, and getting stitches?” Dream would’ve shrugged if he could.

“I guess things change.” His voice sounded disgustingly frail. 

“I suppose they do.” George replied. He had a look on his face that Dream felt like he recognized, and it elicited a warm feeling in his chest. As the brit went back to his final pass of stitching, Dream started to wonder. He’d never really considered the possibility of George loving him back, but…

Something about the way the brunette was laying his hands on him and speaking to him just made him think that maybe there was something there in return. It could be a long shot, of course. Maybe it was just the blood loss and trauma talking- that was always a possibility. Dream knew that he shouldn’t listen to anything that the imposter had said, but one thing that he’d been talking about when they were alone stuck.

“ _ You know George is in love with you, he’ll never forgive you if you hurt me.” _ It had said. Maybe it was supposed to be a way to make him let his guard back down, but there was a little spark in Dream that made him think that maybe it was the truth. That George was in love with him, not that he’d never forgive him. The way that the older was gingerly wrapping his torso in gauze was proof enough that he was forgiven. 

Dream flinched when George pulled the gauze especially tight, and the older quickly loosened it, apologizing profusely.

“You scared me so much.” He said. “I know that part of this is my fault-” the brunette ran his hand across the small wound on Dream’s chest, right over his heart. “I’ll never forgive myself for doing this to you.” Pain was glaringly obvious in those beautiful brown eyes, and all Dream wanted to do was scoop the older into a hug and assure him that everything was alright.

But he couldn’t.

“When I came into that room and I saw you kneeling over Bad’s body, God, I can’t describe what I felt. I was so upset that what Bad had been saying the past few days was true- that’s why I’ve been mad recently.” George continued to explain as he cleaned Dream’s chest wound. He was extra careful there, which the blonde really appreciated. “I hated myself because instead of immediately feeling betrayal, or like, hatred, I just felt sad. And confused, very very confused. I couldn’t believe my own eyes because it was  _ you _ .” His brow furrowed a bit. “I wanted to believe what you were saying about Bad trying to kill you, but I couldn’t ignore what was right in front of me, you know? And as much as I wanted to just say it was okay and leave the room and ignore what happened and just believe you, I couldn’t do that in good conscience.” George picked up the needle for the final time and began to thread it. Only a few stitches would be needed there. “A really fucked up part of me wanted to be with you anyway, even if you were the murderer, because I know you’d never hurt me. I just wanted to have you, Dream, and that is  _ so fucking wrong _ .” Dream felt a burst of sick affection in his chest. George would still want him even if he’d killed all of those people.  _ That’s how much he cared about him _ .

“George-” Dream tried to say, but was shushed. That was probably a good thing, anyway; he was having a lot of trouble processing things at that point.

“Don’t talk, don’t do anything more than breathe. We’re lucky that you don’t need a blood transfusion or something.” The brunette tied off the thread, and wiped his brow while sitting back in his chair. “You actually could probably use one, but we don’t have the tools or the expertise. You’re just going to need rest.” Dream nodded lightly. “Fuck, I can’t lose you. Please don’t die on me Dream.” George pleaded as Dream’s mind began to fade to black.

_ ‘I wouldn’t dream of it. _ ’ He thought, before the throbbing of his wounds faded away along with his conscious thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, next chapter is the end. I'm shocked, I'm sad, I'm excited, but mostly, I'm proud. This has been an incredible experience for me to write, and I've loved (almost) every second of it. I'm not completely done with chapter 11 yet as I'm struggling to get it through my brain that this story is going to be over in a few thousand words. But I mean I can't be too upset, right? The sequel is just around the corner!
> 
> I've never written a murder mystery, or any type of mystery, before, and it was such a fun challenge to put in clues, tie up loose ends, and still leave some things ambiguous. The next book in the series will be much more adventure/romance geared, which is more my usual speed. I hope all of the incredible people who have left kudos, comments, and subscribed to this story will hang on for the sequel. I can't believe the impact that this story has left on so many of my readers, and I can't wait to share more of my art with you wonderful people. I love you all, and I couldn't have made it through this project without you <3


	11. Whole

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Halloween everyone!! A final big thank you to my beta @villerdotpng on tumblr!! I couldn’t have made it through the huge project without them. Also a thank you to my new friend who you may have seen in the comments, @the_little_star!!! We’ve become friends throughout this process, and I’m so thankful to now have her in my life to talk about our writing with.
> 
> This story is officially the longest I’ve ever written, and the first multichaptered fic I’ve ever finished to my knowledge, and I couldn’t have done it without all the incredible support in kudos, comments, bookmarks, and subscriptions. I can’t wait to continue this journey along with you guys!! My birthday is in a few days, and the best gift I could ask for is you all. I love you dearly, and I hope that what I’ve created for you sticks with you for a long time to come. But enough of me rambling, and for one last time, enjoy the chapter!!

It took about three days for Dream to regain enough sense to speak in full sentences again. He felt so incredibly weak, but each day was better than the last. George took great care of him, ensuring that none of his wounds became infected and that his spirits were as high as they could be. The areas around the bigger lacerations were starting to severely bruise black and blue- it was honestly pretty fucking gross. Dream knew that George sometimes gagged while changing his bandages, but this just couldn't be helped; they had no access to medicinal herbs or healing potions, so they would just have to make due. To be fair though, most of their time was just spent with George talking about something or other to distract himself while tending to Dream- he always had something new to talk about. The blonde always nodded along contentedly until the ever reaching grasp of sleep took his brain once again.

They pointedly avoided subjects that would raise Dream’s heart rate or stress him out, so that basically left George to remember stories from their past twelve years together for entertainment. It warmed Dream’s heart to see the gentle smiles that would take over George’s face: despite all that had happened, somehow he managed to push it away for the sake of the blonde. Their lives used to be filled with adventure and freedom, and it felt good to believe, even just for a second, that they could live that way again. Even when he felt a shock of guilt every now and again from even daring to feel joy after all that had happened, he tried to dispel the feeling. He was starting what would be a very,  _ very  _ long mental healing process, and George was doing the same. Dream knew that Tubbo, Tommy, Wilbur, Skeppy, Sapnap, and even Bad would be proud of them for trying to get better.

When the pair were about two days from Earth, Dream decided it was time for him to try to get out of the stupid bed. He hated being confined there, and it was making him antsy. George insisted that he should stay in bed until he had to help the older land, but Dream wasn’t one to listen. He felt bad for making George do everything in preparation, and besides, he was feeling so much better already. He was once again wearing the shirt he’d had on in the beginning of this mess, but it had been scrubbed several times by George. The fabric rubbed on his wounds, but it didn’t sting much. There was the ever present dull ache in his side, chest, and arm, but the more shallow cuts on his face and neck had already scabbed over. He just had to remember not to pick at them.

So, when George went to go get him something to eat, Dream made his escape from the sheets. He forced himself to sit up, groaning at the way the blood rushed down. He took several deep breaths, then in one motion swung his legs over the side of the bed and pushed himself to his feet. He wobbled around and had to blink away the spots from his eyes, but he was standing again, and he was proud of it. 

‘ _You’ve got it, Dream_.’ He hyped himself up, then cautiously let go of the bedframe that he’d had clutched in an iron grip.

One step, then another.

A smile built on his face as the blonde continued to shuffle forward. He knew he was on a limited time frame- if George came back before Dream had made his way out of the medbay, he knew that he’d be promptly guided or carried back to bed, then receive some sort of lecture. But he was  _ fine _ . Dream was a big boy, and he’d made it through much worse. 

He chose to ignore the fact that those times that were “much worse” also happened to be when he could respawn a few days later safe at home.

The blonde rested in the doorway for a moment, back pressed to the frame as he attempted to catch his breath. His brow furrowed in annoyance. ‘ _ Am I really this tired from walking ten feet? _ ’ He asked himself. Obviously the answer was yes. He just hadn’t had enough time to recover all the blood he’d lost yet. 

Dream suddenly looked down the hall when he heard a noise coming from the upper engine. There was a  _ thunk _ ; it sounded like a harsh set of footsteps, but that was impossible, wasn’t it?

“George?” Dream called cautiously down the dark corridor, but received a response from the opposite direction.

“Dream?” The brunette replied, his voice echoing to the hero’s ears from the direction of the cafeteria. He could hear George’s footsteps pick up in speed to come meet him.

A ball of anxiety started to grow in the green eyed man’s chest, and his breathing was rapidly accelerating. ‘ _ What’s happening?’  _ He asked himself.

Then, he saw it. 

The man in the black suit, holding a bloody knife. There was a hole in his neck that was spewing fresh blood, just in the same way it had been last time Dream layed eyes on his body, and a sick smile on his face. He took a step closer, expression unwavering.

“Dream?” The blonde let out a screech when George’s voice appeared in his ear. He looked into the brunette’s concerned eyes for a split second, but then turned back to where Bad was standing-

He was gone.

“What’s going on, why are you out of bed?” George asked frantically. “Are you hurt more, why did you call-”

“Did you see that?” Dream cut him off. His arm shook as he raised it in the direction that he’d seen the imposter. George bit back whatever he was going to say, and looked down the hallway in the direction that Dream started pointing to.

“I didn’t see anything…” The older put an arm around Dream’s waist and began to guide him back into the medbay. “You can’t be out of bed. I know you hate it, and I hate it for you, but this kind of can’t be avoided. Don’t be an idiot.” Dream’s cheeks burned. George was right- there was no one else on the ship, especially not Bad.

The older had sent the body out into space the day before at the blonde’s request. Dream had no desire to see the man who used to be one of his closest friends body thrown out into the void. Despite all that the Imposter had done to him, that body was still Bad, and Dream didn’t want to think about the minuscule possibility that maybe he could’ve been saved. He muttered his tearful goodbye from his prison of a bed, trying to ignore the few tears that slipped over his freckled cheeks. Dream was remembering the Bad he knew, not the Bad he’d died as.

George carefully helped Dream back into bed, the second of which grumbling the whole time about how he didn’t need to be babied. 

“Dream will you shut up for a second and listen?” The brunette asked, wiping a hand over his face. 

“That is no way to talk to your elders-”

“I’m literally two years older than you!” Dream grinned dopily at the offended expression on George’s face. He was so fucking  _ cute _ . If anything could make him forget about the trauma he’d been through, it was that face. “Anyway. You know how you’ve been messing with that computer in Nav?” He asked.

“The one that you said I was an idiot for being obsessed with because we hadn’t found anything else on it?” Dream deadpanned. George nodded enthusiastically.

“Yup, that’s the one.” The blonde rolled his eyes. “Anyways, I’ve found something on it. There’s another file that was buried deep under a bunch of blocks. I don’t know how I found it-”

“Because I’ve been breaking that piece of shit down for months, dickhead!” Dream replied, but he was excited. Maybe there would be answers on it? Maybe they’d find out what that black thing was, or maybe they’d find out what the experiment was for. The possibilities raced through his mind, and he was getting a bit light headed from the revelation.

“I haven’t looked at it yet. It’s either just an audio file, or there’s a video with it. I thought we could check it out together.” All thoughts of the figure in the hallway left Dream’s mind.

“Yes!! Yes, yes, yes.” Dream sat up again and prepared to swing his legs back over the edge of the mattress. “Let’s go now. I need to know-” His excitement was obstructed by a firm hand on his chest pushing him back into the pillows.

“Uh, absolutely not. You need rest.” Dream sputtered.

“You can’t just tell me that you might’ve solved this hugeass mystery that’s been hanging over us for  _ months _ and not  _ let me see _ !” Dream pointed out. George just laughed at him, the asshole, and reached over to sweep a lock of hair off of his forehead. His fingers were warm and gentle, as always. It made the green eyed man’s heart skip a beat, which had also become the norm in his life. What could Dream say?

He was hopelessly in love.

“Listen, I’m sorry. I just don’t need you passing out  _ yet again _ .” George teased. The shorter had pulled up a chair next to the bed, then promptly sat down in it. The two were silent for a few moments, enjoying each other’s company.

“How about next time I wake up?” Dream asked hopefully. George scratched his head and looked around the room as he considered the options.

“Maybe.” He said finally. Dream grinned: he could work with that. Dream let the tension leave his body once again. “If Sapnap were here, he’d probably be carrying you to that screen bridal style.” George said softly. Dream pushed away the spark of pain and guilt that arose with the mention of their friend’s name.

“He’d probably be calling me a pussy for letting Bad beat me up.” Dream joked. George was tapping the toes of his boots on the ground softly, looking all around the room instead of settling on just one thing.

“I miss them all, a lot. I just can’t believe we didn’t see it sooner.” The brunette replied. Dream agreed fully. He’d been beating himself up for the past few days about it: he was mad that he’d ignored the clues that were right in front of him to instead set his sights on Tommy, who just had a big mouth and a bigger attitude. And now, the teenager was dead, because of him.

“We can’t focus on who we lost, now. We have to focus on avenging their names.” His words hung heavily in the air, but they both knew were true. Dream knew himself, and he knew George. They would both beat themselves up wondering what they could’ve done differently, and wishing that things could change. They would have to force themselves to move on, because otherwise they’d fall apart.

“Hey, why don’t you take a nap or something. I want to go see what that file is.” George said, promptly changing the subject: Dream certainly wasn’t complaining.

“I mean we could just go now-” Dream tried again.

“The answer is no, and if you keep asking, we won’t go later either.” George scolded as he sat back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest with a smirk on his lips.

“You sound like my mother.” Dream grumbled, but still gave in, drawing the sheets up to his chin. George leaned forward again, his chocolate hair and pink lips in clear sight of Dream, his heart pumping warmth through every limb.

“Aww goodnight Dreamy, sleep well.” The older cooed, reaching over to ruffle the blonde’s hair. Dream felt all gooey inside.

“Yeah yeah.” He said, the throbbing of his wounds eventually subsiding enough to allow him to drift back to sleep, George sitting comfortingly by his side.

When he finally awoke hours later, Dream literally could not be kept in that bed. He was basically jumping out of it (well, as much as he could in his condition,) before George had even registered his awareness. Frankly, the blonde couldn’t fathom why they even had to wait: he felt literally exactly as he had before he slept, but he couldn’t do anything about that now.

The vision of Bad he’d had- he’d  _ decided  _ it was a vision at least- completely left his mind to make room for the huge mystery that was about to be solved. 

“I swear to God if you pass out or something-” George warned as Dream wobbled his way across the medbay to the door like a newborn duckling. The blonde felt absolutely fantastic though to be fair. Only minimal black spots clouded his vision, and his healing wounds only ached when he breathed in instead of both in and out. If that was anything, it was  _ progress _ .

“Well then why don’t you carry me.” Dream said sarcastically, but was really not expecting to actually be swept off his feet bridal style by the shorter man. He let out an embarrassingly loud squeak of surprise as a blush warmed his face, which was met with laughter from George. “Don’t laugh, you just surprised me, jerk.” Dream grumbled. Despite his grievances, he still cuddled up closely to George’s chest. Even though the two had a fairly substantial size difference, George had obviously grown used to lugging Dream around after the initial injury- the younger felt embarrassingly safe in his arms anyway.

Being able to hear his heartbeat and the sound of his labored breathing meant something so important to him- it meant that George was still alive. Even though Dream had failed to save so many of the people he loved, he was able to save George, and that made all the pain worth it a million times over.

Just as the two passed the cafeteria and entered weapons, Dream noticed George’s arms shaking from strain.

“You can let me down now if I’m too heavy.” The blonde said casually. George had his bottom lip held between his teeth in concentration. Dream didn’t want the older to risk hurting himself, but the determined brunette stubbornly shook his head.

“Nope, nope I got this.” He expressed through gritted teeth. One upwards facing breath pushed around a stray lock of hair that had fallen into his eyes.

“George, seriously.” Dream pressed.

“Dream, no.”

“George-”

“FINE!” George yelled, and for a moment Dream felt his stomach drop as the brown eyed man started to take his hands away. Out of a purely primal reaction, Dream quick as lightning wrapped his arms around George’s neck tightly and screwed his eyes shut, ready to hit the ground. Instead of the pain of his ass hitting the cold metal floor, Dream was met with more laughter from George, and the arms still beneath him.

“You should've seen your face!” George wheezed as he continued the trek to navigation, Dream’’s neck and cheeks burning. “You actually thought I would-” The brunette promptly stopped his mocking when Dream buried his head in the older man’s neck,slightly shaking. “Dream?” He asked, tone changing.

“Hm?” The blonde hummed in response. By the time this exchange had begun, George was depositing the taller onto his feet at the door to navigation. Dream wobbled a bit, reaching to the side to grip George’s bicep for balance. 

“I would never let you fall, seriously.” He said as he slowly walked Dream to his seat. At one point the blonde tripped over his own feet, and George had to reach out quickly to wrap an arm around his waist. Dream hissed when the brunette’s big hand put pressure on the healing wound in his side, but otherwise no part of the exchange was especially painful. A wave of relief washed over the blonde when he finally was sitting down though. His chest throbbed painfully when he took a deep breath, George taking the seat next to him. He looked at Dream with concerned eyes, worrying his lip between his teeth again.

“See? Easy peasy, fuckin squeezy.” Dream wheezed out, uninjured arm reaching up to clutch at his chest. George just shook his head.

“You’re so weird.” He said, then turned to the computer screen before them on the dash. Dream had been in the medbay so long that looking out the front windshield took his breath away again. God, Earth was so  _ close _ . It took up nearly the whole view- the blonde could make out swirling clouds and land masses that had a vast, deep blue filling the area between them. Not for the first time Dream was pitying George for his colorblindness- there were just some things that needed color to truly be appreciated. “Okay, so here it is.” George declared nervously. Dream tore his gaze from the planet in front of them to where the pointer was fixed on a lone glitching icon. The two shared a glance and a nod, then George unceremoniously double clicked.

Static burst out from speakers around them, rough sound filling the room, then everything suddenly quieted. 

“Is it working-” Dream started, but was promptly cut off by the sound of a voice.

“Hello? Hello,  _ fuck _ , I really hope this is on.” The voice said. There was no video attachment, but that seemed very unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Anything was better than nothing, especially because this man’s voice sounded real; he wasn’t a robot, and he wasn’t delivering a speech or a mission. He just sounded scared. “If anyone ever finds this, I hope to god it’s before it’s too late for you.” Dream looked over to George, who was staring at the white screen that highlighted his sharp features, brows furrowed in concentration. “My name is Jordan, but they call me the Captain.” The man continued. Dream could pick up on how quickly he was breathing, and the shakiness in his tone. Something was definitely very wrong. “Me and my crew, we were sent out into space to be the guinea pigs for some shitty experiment to find a new world and take it over. We thought we were just scouts until it was too late- they showed us some video after we were already outside of the atmosphere, and by then it was too late for us. They said that there was something wrong with Earth, but that’s bullshit. When we left, nothing had changed.”

There was what sounded like screaming or yelling that could be heard faintly in the background, and when that began, Jordan started talking much faster.

“We went to the planet, but we quickly realized that eight people wasn’t going to be enough to take over. I don’t know what kind of life those bastards  _ thought _ would be there, but it wasn’t just little bits of algae or bacteria. These things are killers, just like us.”

“ _ JORDAN!” _ A female voice screamed in the background. Dream’s heart was beating a mile a minute as goosebumps rose on his arms and neck, but the Captain just ignored whoever was yelling and continued to speak.

“We got back on the ship after failing the mission to come back to Earth and give those dipshits a piece of our minds, but then shit started to go wrong. My friends started dying one by one a few weeks ago, and none of us knew what the fuck was going on. Yesterday I saw Felix get decapitated in electrical, and now the only ones left are me, Rae, and Corpse.” There was the sound of something hitting metal repeatedly in the background now; the screams had ceased. “Well, now me and Corpse.” The Captain said.

“He’s been using the vents to get around- that’s how he killed Felix at least.” The pounding on the door got louder and louder with each hit. Dream knew where that was going, but still he listened. “I don’t know what happened to him. I don’t know what’s made him go crazy, but whatever it is, he needs to be stopped. I’m about to die, but this ship is going down with me. I’ll try to make sure he doesn’t survive the reentry, but I can’t promise anything.” The sound of a metal door being busted open made the speakers crackle, and loud, heavy footsteps were taking their time crossing the floor. “May God save you.” He whispered.

“Hello, Captain.” A voice so deep that Dream could hear it in his core said. The blonde could almost hear the sick smile that would have been on that killer’s face as he prepared to murder the Captain, his friend. He thought back to Bad, and how he’d looked nothing like himself as he’d tried to kill him. Dream wondered if this Captain guy was feeling the same way he had.

“Corpse, please-” The Captain begged, but the next thing to come through the tinny speaker was the sound of something ripping flesh apart, and a heavy  _ thud _ as the body presumably hit the ground, dead as Dream would’ve been so easily.

“You’re next.” The deep voice said, then the audio cut off. 

Dream and George sat in silence for a moment, what they’d learned dancing through their brains and hanging suspended in the air.

“The vents, of course.” George whispered. Dream was literally shaking. That could’ve been  _ him _ . Him and George, dead at the hands of an alien. And if the blonde hadn’t beaten and killed Bad, there could’ve been a whole different crew onboard after them, and then what? “Hey, it’s okay, it’s okay.” George got up and walked to Dream’s chair just a foot away, and crouched in front of the younger, taking Dream’s shaking hands in his own. Beautiful brown eyes met his own in a show of reassurance. Dream nodded as his heart rate began to slow. 

_ They were safe. _

After a few moments of silence, George finally spoke up. “I really wish I wasn’t colorblind right now.” He whispered, still staring deeply into Dream’s eyes. There was something  _ there _ , some sort of magnetic energy that had Dream leaning minutely closer, their noses just a few inches apart. The blonde blushed slightly, but didn’t turn away at the intensity- instead he cocked his head to the side a bit.

“Why’s that?” Dream could almost feel the breath on his cheeks and his eyes fluttering closed before George smirked and leant back, breaking the magnetic pull and pushing the pair back into reality.

“Because I know your eyes are probably really pretty but they’re literally the color of piss to me and that kinda puts a damper on the mood.” He deadpanned, causing Dream to burst out laughing, the intensity between the two from just moments before dissipating.

“Oh, come on now.” He rolled his eyes. “You really know the way to a guy’s heart.” Dream joked in return, relishing in the toothy smile that took over George’s pale features. But soon the smile turned into a more pensive look as the brunette stood up and walked back over to the inlaid screen. 

“There’s nothing else here… I feel so bad for that Jordan guy and his crew.” George said, chewing on his lip.

“In a sick way, it’s almost nice to know we weren’t the first ones.” Dream replied. He once again looked out the front shield, Earth so close he could almost feel the wind in his fair and hear the leaves crunching under his boots. It would only be a few hours until they were home.

“I really wish we’d found this earlier.” George sighed, pushing a hand through his hair to further mess it up. “Maybe we could’ve saved some lives if only we’d known…” 

“I don’t know, I feel like we’d just be more cautious.” Dream reasoned. “We’d know about the vent travel and yeah that would be helpful, but we still wouldn’t know that it was Bad. It might’ve ended with us bringing that  _ thing _ back to Earth with us. Who knows what it would’ve done?” The brunette nodded, then turned to look at the planet before them.

“You’re right. Maybe it was better this way, as fucked up as it is.” The two were silent as George scanned the planet and surrounding stars. “I’m going to get our helmets for landing. I hope we’ll be okay without the suits on reentry because I can’t put that thing back on.” He said, then smiled softly at Dream. “Do you think we can land this thing?” Nerves were present in his voice, but it seemed like more of a hype up question than a serious one. Dream leaned back in his chair and dramatically cracked his knuckles.

“Hell fucking yeah.” He confirmed, a determined grin on his face.

“That’s what I like to hear.” The brunette said before walking to the door. “I’ll be back in a few, don’t touch anything and don’t pick at your stitches like a dumbass.” He said, then was gone. While turning back, Dream’s eyes caught on the vent in the corner of the room, a shiver bolting up his spine. Those fucking things were the reason for so many deaths. He let out a huff.

The light hum of the ship’s engine was a welcoming noise to the young adventurer. His bones creaked with every deep breath, and despite the aching in his wounds, he felt more alive than he had in two months. Being with George, and knowing that they were finally,  _ finally _ , safe made all the difference.

But there was a nagging in his brain. It said that he shouldn’t be happy, and couldn't heal, because it was his fault that everyone was gone. He knew that he’d never stop being haunted by Tubbo’s eye, or Skeppy’s tongue, or Sapnap’s words of hatred, or Wilbur’s chest, or Tommy’s promise to see him in Hell. He was well aware that how completely and utterly gone Bad was would always plague him.

But at the same time, he had to think about what he still had.

George, the man that he’d been best friends with and inseparable from for the last twelve years. The man that he’d realized that he was in love with. He was someone worth holding onto. And yeah, maybe he could be a dick sometimes, so could Dream himself. That was their dynamic, and it was all in good fun. They would always be there for each other no matter what.

Dream trusted him with his life.

And yeah, it may have hurt that George thought he was the imposter for a moment there, but he could understand it. Life or death situations were primal- he was doing what he needed to so that he’d survive.

Dream drummed his finger on his knee impatiently, wanting his friend to come back already. Was it sad that he missed George after five minutes apart? Probably. But he didn’t really give a shit. They had to land a whole spaceship in a few hours, and it was a very daunting task. Sure, Dream could fix up some wires and hack a computer, but land a spaceship? That was a little out of his comfort zone. Still though, after everything he had survived, he was sure he could make it through one more thing. Then, it would be over.

There was something he wanted to do before this nightmare was over. Something he’d wanted to do since way before this whole mess.

The feeling of a blanket being gently draped over his shoulders pulled Dream from his thoughts. He looked up to see George smiling softly down at him, holding out a steaming cup. The blonde raised an eyebrow, but reached out his uninjured hand to take it. The smell that hit his nose was heavenly, but still nothing compared to George’s sharp cinnamon scent that reminded him of home.

“Hot chocolate. I figured that because we’re landing soon, we might as well make use of it.” The brunette explained, setting his cyan helmet in the adjacent captains chair. Dream took a sip- the sweet taste melted over his tongue and filled him with warmth. “It’s mixed with water instead of milk, of course. I’m sorry if it’s not as good but you get what you get-“ George began to ramble, tripping over his words adorably. 

“It’s perfect, Gogy. Thanks, seriously.” Dream reassured, endeared by the nervous look on the older man’s blushing face. George placed Dream’s helmet in his lap, careful not to jostle any bandages or put pressure where it wasn’t wanted, then sat down in his own seat, putting his own helmet on his legs. The two looked forward, allowing the silence to drape over them. 

The thin blanket over Dream’s shoulders did little to ease the constant pain he was in, but it made his heart all fluttery to know that George had thought to bring it for him.  _ His _ George, who he loved more than he loved himself. Sapnap and Bad had always teased him for his “obvious crush,” but Dream never thought of it in that way. He was just...

_ George. _

And that was so much more than Dream deserved to have. 

But looking out that glass at the planet Earth looming before them, a blanket of distant stars adorning the background, there was no better time to truly say what he felt, even if he didn’t deserve to feel it.

Deep down, he knew without a doubt that George felt the same. He knew that man better than he knew himself, and secrets between them were nearly impossible to keep. The sound of the brunette’s breathing was constant and comforting, causing Dream to release all tension in his body.

A soft smile painted the blonde’s lips. The energy in the room was electric, but not in a bad way. It was the slow beginning of a nightmare turning into a dream. It was their future beginning and the past being left behind. It was the spirits of all of their friends who didn’t make it through surrounding him and teasing him into finally,  _ finally _ , letting the truth out. 

“George?” Dream asked, eyes still facing out the window, trained on the blue and green planet that was becoming clearer by the minute. He could feel the ghost of Sapnap’s hands massaging his shoulders as if he were a wrestler going into the ring, and hear whispers of Tubbo trying to stop Tommy from teasing him. “When I was fighting Bad, the first thing that came into my head wasn’t that I could die. It was that he could hurt  _ you _ .” He confessed. “I can’t lose you, you’re everything to me. You’re my everything, and I want to be with you, as more then friends.” Dream said softly. ‘ _ I’m in love with you,’  _ He thought as a shiver passed through him that distinctly felt like Bad’s comforting presence. The air was still, the only sound that filled it was the low rumble of the engine. The blonde felt no nerves, he felt no insecurity. All he felt was warmth at Wilbur and Skeppy’s hands ruffling his hair goodnaturedly, even though not a single strand moved in reality. “I think I’ve wanted to be with you for a long time.” He dropped his hand down to the side of his chair. There was a silence, but it wasn’t awkward, just comfortable.

“I never want to go another second without you by my side, you know.” George replied after a moment, voice cracking a bit in emotion. “I want to be with you. As  _ so much more _ than just friends.” He continued, voice dripping in sincerity that made Dream’s insides turn to mush. “And,” he added, “if you ever almost die on me again, I might just have to kill you myself.” A soft smile built on the blonde’s face. He knew George wasn’t facing him- the brunette didn’t have to. They didn’t have to see each other to know that what they were feeling was real; what they were  _ saying  _ was real. Dream and George put their helmets on to prepare for reentry, nervousness and excitement mounting in the space between them. After a moment, Dream felt George’s pinkie finger intertwine with his own. “This is a promise, Dream.” He said. The stars glittered in front of them around the huge landmass that was their home, space so vast and large that it could swallow the pair in an instant. “This is a promise that everything will be okay, as long as we have each other.”

Dream sighed contentedly, relishing in the giddiness that traveled through his body, flowing from the place where George’s pinky was connected to his own. He thought back to that question he’d asked himself two months ago, and realized that he’d finally found an answer.

Why were they in space? 

In short terms, it didn’t matter. They were sent there to lose things- their friends, their lives, and their sanity.

But Dream and George made a new purpose, one that would honor their fallen friends.

They were in space to learn the value of life and love, and how it could be taken away in an instant.

They were in space to learn to cherish what they had.

Dream tore his gaze away from the view for a moment to take in the beauty of the man beside him. Through the helmets it was hard to make out much, but one thing he saw was that beautiful smile, filled with wonder and curiosity. The blonde turned back to the glass before him. He took his pinky out of George’s hold, only to lace their fingers together instead. A firm squeeze from the older brought a smile to his face, eyes crinkling in happiness.

And despite the tears in his physical skin, for the first time in months, Dream finally felt whole again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Coming soon: A Classic Case of Ghosts in the Head
> 
> “Dream, if you found a ship on an island and thought that you could get rid of me using it, I’m sure as hell that you would’ve put me on it without a second thought.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone!! I was watching one of Bad’s old Among Us streams and this idea hit me like a ton of bricks. Normally I’m more of a one-shot kind of girl, but I’ve been reading this incredible series by @amooniesong that’s inspired me to try to write a longer piece. I really hope you all enjoy it!!! Also, if Dream or George ever express discomfort with shipping (or Bad and Skeppy) I’ll take the romance right out of this fic.
> 
> **updates on Tuesdays and Saturdays**

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The London Bridge is burning down...](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27358360) by Anonymous 




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